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All the Caligari children were raised in a small weatherboard home at Eastem
HiU, the surrounding farm providing most of their food needs: oat crops, a large and
varied vegetable garden, fcuiX and nut trees and livestock for eggs and milk. Though h
was a family enterprise ostensibly mn on patriarchal lines, Mary Ann, with her strong
and determined personality, was able to temper the traditional relationship.^ The
children, who mastered few words of Italian, attended the local govemment school,
although the two youngest (at least) were students at Holy Cross Convent in
Daylesford, Leo walking the six or so kilometres there and back each day. To support
his large family, Antonio continued to mine for gold, one mine (reportedly) returning
over 8,000 pounds;^'* if this figure is accurate, it suggests the family clung to a peasant
Ufe-style through choice rather than need. Before the birth of his last child, Antonio,
driven by the same courage and ambition which had brought him from Someo to
Australia, headed off to Western Australia to pursue further his mining interest. (It
was a decision taken by many Victorians, including many Italian-speakers at that time.)
And because of Austraha's vast size, it was a decision almost as momentous as the one
taken all those years before.
Departing by ship, as he had in 1861, Antonio was accompanied by his eldest
daughter Maria, she being the kinship link in the 'new land' as once his brother
Giacomo had been. Sadly, Maria was to die in Westem Australia (from enteric fever
and haemorrhaging on 31 January 1898), her burial in the Coolgardie Cemetery, again
signifying the many Italian speakers who had died far away from their homes. Her
death was also recorded on a family plot at Eganstown, symboUsing the immigrants'
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