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Much of the fi^it for their wdne and brandy was grown on a terraced vineyard
occupying a large area of land with a creek frontage next to Bergamo. Bergamo itself
was a stone house buih into the side of a hill, a design which had enabled the inclusion
of an underground wine ceUar and curing rooms. When applying to purchase his home
in the 1870s Luigi had at first been refiised permission by the Lands Department.
Asserting that the highest priority should go to those who wished to mine the land, the
Department representatives had eventually been persuaded to accept Luigi's
application after receiving from him the following words by letter:
as a class of settler, we [Italians] effect much more valuable and
permanent improvements on our holding, in establishing new industries,
than any other class of settler in the colony."*^
In realising the important economic benefit Italian speakers were bringing to the region
with their farming skills, the authorities had begun to adopt a more encouraging policy
towards the Italian speakers' permanent settlement; it was an important stage in the
road towards Australian ethnic tolerance. Like most homes occupied by Italian
speakers, Bergamo was surrounded by many features necessary for a self-sufficient
Ufe-style. There was a piggery, blacksmith's shed, stables, cow bam, a large vegetable
garden and chestnut and fiiiit trees. Mulberry trees provided a reminder of home,
especially the flourishing silk industries of Lombardy (which inadequate labour
supplies, namely women and children to pick the leaves and care for the worms,
prevented being introduced in Australia). The cellar, the roof beams of which had been
constmcted from massive tree tmnks and its floor paved with giant flagstones, housed
salami and cheese-making rooms, huge fermenting and smaller wine storage barrels
and a superb wine-press which had been built by Luigi (and proved operative for many
decades). Inside the home, from a floor made of wide, uneven floorboards, rose a huge
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