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at 250 pounds. Later, when gold was discovered at Yandoit, Leonardo and
Margherita moved into the town to set up its first hotel: the Yandoit Hotel cost 1,125
pounds to establish and incorporated stables for the Cobb and Co. coaches.^^
Leonardo also took in photography work and maintained an interest in the mines,
which may have reflected the general peasant tradition of a varied income or just his
entreprenerial initiative. When the gold dwindled, however, and the business
partnership with Tognini came to an end, Leonardo and Margherita found themselves
in economic difficulty. Left with only their saloon at Hepbum, which they eventually
sold in 1860 to Alessandro Monighetti from Biasca for 350 pounds, they opened
another saloon in Yandoit for 250 pounds. Combined with losses in the mines, it was
not long, however, before they again faced economic min.'*" Distressed by his financial
losses, Leonardo tumed to his family for support, complaining that in five years, he had
not once heard from his brother, Giuseppe, in Ticino. This was remedied in 1861,
when Giuseppe arrived on the goldfields.
By 1861, almost one quarter of Giumaglio's population had emigrated to the
Colony.'*^ While the majority who had departed in the years between 1854 and 1855
anticipated finding gold, those leaving towards the end of the decade were joining
friends or family in established businesses or opening up businesses of their own. At
43 years of age, and one of only nineteen Ticinesi to emigrate in that year, Giuseppe
arrived in Austraha aboard the Elizabeth Bright.'^^ He immediately set himself up in a
flour mill in Daylesford ~ drawing upon his baking skills ~ and bought land on which
to cultivate grape-vines. Despite their business disappointments, his two brothers were
also making positive statements about their decision to remain in Australia: in that
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