After doing research through the Slow Food Movement and participating in a documentary with the Daylesford Secondary College, Gary Thomas soon became aware that a local delicacy, 'bull boars' a sausage was specific to this area.
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Gary was told by the film maker that she had never heard of bull boars even though her husband was born in the same area that many of the Daylesford gold rush migrants had lived.
In 2006, Gary attended a slow food conference in Italy and decided to research this local delicacy.
"We always assumed the Swiss Italians brought the recipe with them when they migrated." Gary said.
He realised the Swiss Italians brought with them the knowledge and the equipment to make the sausage.
Close to 4000 young Swiss Italian men migrated to the Daylesford area during the gold rush period and soon formed the foundation of the region.
Gary has many memories of making bull boars when he was growing up, each family having their own variation of the sausage.
"I can remember making the sausages with my father," Gary said.
"No one really thought much about their origin as they were always part of growing up."
Realising that the bull boar could not have originated from Europe due to the economic climate there at that time, Gary said: "It's incomprehensible. Bull boars have got such a rich mixture of spices with a whole pile of beef and these people were starving to death so they're never going to have that product."
Making use of ingredients common to the gold fields at that time, the bull boar came into being and is very unique in its flavour. "It's been enriched with a tumult of ingredients from the goldfields combined with the spices of the Chinese," Gary said.
"It's the availability of what was around on the goldfields at that time. They have expressed themselves in making these sausages.
"It is unique in the world. While there are some like it they're not the same.
"It's a collusion of cultures."
Gary is heading off to Korea at the end of this month to present bull boars at a food expo for the Asian market.
"The Koreans are interested in the unique food products of Australia," he said.
Gary is also interested in obtaining any memorabilia from family photos that may enlighten the beginnings and history of bull boars.
He can be contacted on 0448 483 616.
