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partnership the men were probably sharing make-shift accommodation close to where
they were working, an 1865 Newstead Shire rate book mentioning Gervasoni and
party as living in 'huts in Mein's paddock' (possibly a reference to an earlier
occupant).** They eventually buih (or improved) a smaU house on the east side of the
creek, on a site which later became the site of the Yandoit Creek school ground.
In the early 1860s, two new members joined the company: Antonio Gervasoni
in 1861, and Carlo's brother Giuseppe in 1862. Antonio and his two brothers
Ferdinando and Giovanni were distantly related members of the Gervasoni clan who
had come to Australia from Bergamo three years earlier. Antonio, who had been
relatively successful in the mines (and may have brought extra funds to the
partnership), became the cheese and butter-maker and Giuseppe, the baker and
rouseabout. A baker by trade, Griuseppe had earlier been working at Vincenzo
Pedrini's bakery in Yandoit (probably the same Ticinese immigrant who operated the
wine bar mentioned previously). In 1863, and at Carlo's request, his younger brother
Luigi arrived in Australia to become the seventh and final member of the dairying
company.*^ He was appointed head cowboy, overseeing several young helpers (the
lack of fencing in the early years of settlement making cattie herding a fuU-time
occupation).
It was at about this time, with the partnership growing larger, that plans were
made for bigger business premises ~ (what later became) the 'old stone house' at
Yandoit Creek (ref figure 12). Pleased wdth his prospects in the Colony, and apr earing
unlUcely to retum to his homeland, it was also at this point that Carlo requested his
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