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fireplace into the back of which was set a domed bread oven. Leading off" along a
sUghtly askew passageway were several bedrooms, separated by thick stone walls, and
upstjdrs a loft where the boys slept. The exterior waUs were made from sandstone
with a mud plaster and the roof was deeply pitched. The size of the home was
extended by the Gervasonis as the needs of the family grew."*'
Luigi traded a good deal with the Italian speakers in the Yandoit district,
especially in the years leading up to 1900, before many began to move away. A
number of his business receipts survive to reveal items, such as potatoes, chaff, hay,
wine and sausages, which the family sold."*^ Personalised account slips, describing
Luigi as a vigneron and seller of farm and dairy produce, suggest English-speaking as
well as Swiss-Italian clientele. Items purchased by the family, such as meat, flour,
coffee, bran, tea, salt, blue starch, shirts, boots and sharps, indicate a move away from
a totally self-sufficient life-style, increased prosperity and the easy availability of many
goods having eased the reUance on some traditional practices. Toward the end of the
1890s, the population of Yandoit Creek began to decline; by the late 1890s, the
school's enrolments had faUen from 81 in 1884, when the region was at its peak, to 22
by 1891 and 17 by 1902"** ~ taking with it many of its Italian speakers. The Gervasonis
did not move away from the district but, in the years which followed, suffered some
misfortune and sadness.
In 1897, a number of properties, including Carlo's, were damaged by a severe
storm; so strong were the winds, rain and hail that his children Carlo and Annie were
hit by flying iron sheets from their roof as they retumed from the milking sheds and the
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