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Download (14Mb) - VUIR - Victoria University

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identification with a new 'home' outside Europe. Travelling aboard the Buninyong to<br />

Westem Australia^* to be with his father, Antonio (jnr) joined the emigrant chain but,<br />

like so many before him, decided to remain on in the 'new land', not returning to his<br />

family for many years. Leaving him behind to mine for gold, his father, grieving for the<br />

loss of his daughter, retumed to Eastem Hill that same year. The naming of his last<br />

child in 1901 with an Italian name possibly signified a yearning to recapture the past.<br />

Antonio lived another nine years after his retum from Westem Australia, dying<br />

on 27 May 1907 at 64 years of age. Prior to this he had been transferred to a<br />

Melboume hospital where, denied the opportunity to die at home, he perhaps felt the<br />

alienation and fear associated with being placed in institutionalised care. His obituary,<br />

which appeared in the Daylesford Advocate, described him as a 'very highly respected<br />

resident of Eastem Hill'.^' The sentiment was reflected in the attendance at his very<br />

large funeral: along with 35 vehicles, several horsemen and pedestrians foUowing the<br />

hearse, 20 members of the lOOF, and many from the Italian-speaking community,<br />

joined the procession. The coffin-bearers were S. Belline (Silvestro Belloni?), M.<br />

Giacometti, M. Morganti, Lafranchi, J. Tomasini and R. Bemasocchi,^* indicating<br />

Antonio's lasting links with his homeland. The cord-bearers were his four sons.<br />

Antonio was buried in the Eganstovm Cemetery along with his brother Battista and his<br />

cousin Lucrezia, who had died in 1898. He had resided 46 years in AustraUa.<br />

The lives of his children followed varying paths. Antonio John mined for gold<br />

m Westem AustraUa for over 50 years living at various times at Laverton, Davyhurst,<br />

Leonora, Mt. Malcolm and Coolgardie. In Collie he worked as a woodcutter, and in<br />

345

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