This was a pretty amazing event, and it saddens me looking through the photo and seeing how many people are no longer with us in it.  I guess this is the way of life, but it is still a strange thing that part of getting older is knowing progressively more people who have passed.

This was also shortly after I first met my sister Michele and her family.  Quite a big event in my life.

Anyway captured here is a fair chunk of my father's side of our family in (I think) Maryborough near Moe in Victoria.

As I understand the family history, and I am always getting it wrong, my father came to Australia at 10 with his brother and parents.  My grandfather had a job working as a carpenter on the mines (I never knew he was a carpenter until recently, and thought he worked as a miner) and Nan too found employment in a working men's hostel.

They lived in the house they were given as part of that job for the rest of their lives.  I have good memories of them, and visiting it.  I only visited there and saw my grandmother once more after this event.  It wasn't as pleasant a trip as this one, so I like this photo to help remember the happy times.