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Angelo Guilio Deigo Bernacchi came to Tasmania in 1884, believing
that the climate would be conducive to growing silk worms.
'At the end of April 1886, a parliamentary party
visited the island to inspect improvements, and Bernacchi invited
the Treasurer, the Honourable W.H. Burgess, to examine the books.
The vineyards, which have sometimes been regarded as a myth, or
at best a joke, were thriving ...the grapes were tied on with silk
thread; they were cut at dusk when the deception could not be noticeable;
Barbe Bernacchi cut the first bunch with a pair of silver scissors...'
Margaret Weidenhofer Maria Island: A Tasmanian
Eden Hobart: Darlington Press, 1977
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