Vittorio Campagnolo returned to Walhalla in mid to late 1876 and, by May 1877, was working with Pietro Negri, trading in partnership as charcoal suppliers under the name 'Negri & Campagnolo'.¹²

The business was part of a continuing charcoal supply line by Italians to the Walhalla Gold Mining Co. that had existed since the mine's inception in 1865. An 1878 Crown Lands sketch outlining Campagnolo and Negri's place of work survives. It is a rough plan of a miner's right held by the two men in the Maidentown (also known as Pearson) area, approximately one kilometre south-east of Walhalla, where both men lived and probably operated their charcoal kilns. The residence sites on the plan, which are really just huts, are on a much smaller scale than the buildings (home and barn) on the land occupied by Rutter, their neighbour. There is also a reference to 'track into forest for timber' for access into the bush.¹³ Whether there were other Italians living with Campagnolo or Negri, or in the vicinity, is not known, but the site is typical of many similar Italian work clusters scattered around Walhalla. These were located close to work and consisted of canvas tents or rough timber huts that could be easily dismantled, or just abandoned.

The partnership lasted until January 1880 when Campagnolo commenced trading on his own as 'Campagnolo & Co.' He operated on a reduced scale until the Walhalla Gold Mining Co.'s interests were sold twelve months later. After the mine's demise, Campagnolo continued operating as a charcoal supplier and, in 1884, Middleton & Maning listed him as a 'charcoal burner', reflecting his ongoing commitment to char production for other local mines whose records have not survived.¹⁴

In a very small way, Vittorio Campagnolo was an active share trader in Walhalla's gold mines. He put specific and calculated strategies into place with the intention of creating wealth, which involved risk-taking and speculation. For example, during his first visit to Walhalla, between June 1872 and December 1874, he purchased two Walhalla Gold Mining Co. shares with a face value of £10 each but with a market value of between £162 and £185 each.¹⁵ After he returned to Walhalla in about June 1876, he purchased a further two shares at an unknown cost. The four shares were on-sold in January 1877.¹⁶ Their sale coincides with the Campagnolo & Negri partnership being set up and the likely need to free up some capital for the enterprise.

Campagnolo continued trading in Walhalla Gold Mining Co. shares and, between July 1876 and August 1877, held a further ten shares with a face value of £3.¹⁷ These may have been in lieu of cash, as it was not uncommon for suppliers and contractors to accept payment from mines in this way. However, he had little joy from the latter acquisitions and was still the unfortunate owner when he paid up a seventeenth and last call, in December 1880.¹⁸ In 1883, mining records show that Campagnolo had a one-twenty-fourth share in the newly formed General Gordon Gold Mining Co. that fronted Stringers Creek, three and a half kilometres north of the Walhalla township. In 1888 he also held a few hundred shares in Broham's Reef Gold Mining Co.¹⁹ Neither mine had good yields. There may have been other share interests, records of which are now lost.

Marriage to a non-Italian woman dramatically changed the direction of most Italians and they rarely returned permanently to their home communities. In 1888, Alexander Sutherland described Vittorio Campagnolo's position in Walhalla and noted that 'in 1880 he married Miss Gray and has a family of four children'.²⁰

A closer examination of this account reveals small inaccuracies in relation to Miss Gray's true status. Although referred to as 'single' prior to her marriage, she was not in fact a 'miss' when she married Vittorio Campagnolo. Born on 30 June 1859, Anne (later referred to as 'Anna'²¹) was the child of Irish emigrants, James and Mary Gray (née Mulligan), who had arrived in Victoria on the Tudor, also in June of that year.²² Records of James and Mary's deaths have not been found but, when Anne was sixteen, her guardians induced her to marry David Andrew Baldy with whom she had three children, Alice, David and James.²³ According to family sources, David Baldy was a waster and the couple separated after a few years of marriage. No record has been found of Vittorio and Anne's wedding. He declined to have Anne's children and they were cared for and brought up by the Baldy family.²⁴

After his 'marriage', Vittorio Campagnolo moved away from charcoal production and timber cutting to become a hotelkeeper. In September 1884 he purchased the Alpine Hotel from Antonio Simonin, another Italian, and retained its name and licence.²⁵ Over the next few years, Vittorio and Anna renovated and extended the hotel to the extent that it became a local landmark. In 1886, when Vittorio applied for a victualler's licence, the hotel had 'eleven rooms exclusive of those required for family and servants' and, by 1888, it contained fourteen rooms, with six stalled stables attached to it.²⁶