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eplacing the more common si sottoscrivono or sifirmano. Along with expressions,
such as pagato pieno (fully paid) instead of pagato in pieno and summa (sum) instead
of somma, an English influence was apparent.
In 1865, a comer block of land at Yandoit Creek ~ the future site of the 'old
stone house' ~ was sold to Ambrogio Invemizzi, acting as agent for himself, Carlo,
Luigi and Antonio Gervasoni. The same year Carlo applied for two more lots of land
nearby, as did his brother Giuseppe. Other members of the partnership also increased
their land holdings during this period, evidence of the profitability and stability of their
business arrangement. Around 1865, the building of the 'old stone house' was begun,
with plans for it to be occupied by Carlo, his family and several of the business
partners. With the growth of their combined land holdings, a contract was drawn up in
March 1866 to stipulate fencing and other maintenance arrangements.*' Today
abandoned, the stone house was then a grand two-storey building in the Lombard
style, its extemal appearance reflecting the architectural and agricultural traditions of
that part of nineteenth century Italy.** While Carlo possessed some skills as a
stonemason, it was possibly a group of Italian ana English speakers who performed
most of the labour along with large numbers of local tradespeople to order and supply
the timber and perform the carpentry and plumbing work; one Antonio Duico, who
was an important stonemason at that time, may have assisted, along with Jim Perinoni
(who did some later work for Carlo) to help cart the mortar and stone.
Like many homes built by Italian speakers in the district, the workers first
cleared the land of tree stumps and stones, dug a hole for the cellar and set aside the
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