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Stefano may have appeared eccentric to this young girl, not only because of his
unusual behaviour, but because of his now ageing appearance: his once dark and curly
hair and heavy moustache ~ so telling of his European origins ~ had tumed to long
white whiskers; his slight body had become frail. By the end of the century, the Pozzi
adventurers of 50 years before had all grovm old and, on 16 June 1897, at 79 years of
age, Giuseppe reached the end of his life. He had been a miller and resident of
Wombat for 36 years and, of his brothers, perhaps the most financially successful.
At the time of Giuseppe's death, his brother Leonardo was possibly still living
in New Zealand (though it is possible that he may have retumed to Australia). He had
worked in a number of capacities in New Zealand, including that of gunsmith,
machinist and orthopaedist, but had failed to secure a regular income. He complained
that the EngUsh aristocracy controlled the labour market leaving little for its non-
English speaking immigrants. He also claimed that they had swindled the Maoris out
of their land.^'* Leonardo tried to establish a home for his family in New Zealand, in
1886, requesting seeds for mulberry trees from Ticino for his garden: he hoped
perhaps to evoke the memory of the plantations around Como where the silk industries
had flourished.^* By the end of the decade, however, his family had retumed to
Melboume, where Leonardo worked in a variety of occupations and stores, eventually
settling in the inner suburb of Cariton (an area which, after the Second World War,
gained prominence for its large Italian population). In 1889, as an example of his
creative abilities (again arguably tied to his peasant upbringing), he invented an ink
feeder for steel nibs. His last enterprise was as a Fitzroy gunsmith in 1890; from here
he distributed advertising pamphlets carrying a picture of the Swiss hero, William Tell,
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