I have a friend who has devoted much time and attention to delving into her family tree. The term used is Genealogy and to be honest it is a very fascinating subject for people like me, living in a country where my forbears are foreign and have come from diverse cultures other than that of the Australian True Native.
It is said that the Australian Aboriginal has lived here for tens of thousands of years. They had adapted to the diversity of the land and cohabited naturally within its terrain. We on the other hand having come here over two hundred years ago, whether as convicts to the eastern regions and Van Diemen's Land. Free settlers to the middle and then to the west on Rottnest Island off of Perth, another penal colony, have brought with us the ideals of the countries we left behind.
There is so much that has been written and can be written on this subject however I do not wish to digress. Many of my own ancestors were free settlers who came to this refreshing and often harsh country to start a new life for their families. I thank them for that always, because this is my home and my children's home and their children's home, on and on and in so many ways we are the lucky country.
Business was a way to feed a new family and so was the land so it is in knowing that necessity is the mother of invention many a new arrival set up a business or made their way to new land with the purpose of free enterprise.
Australia was very much a country derived off the sheep's back so to speak and the picture above courtesy of my friend Anne, shows a store, one of three that was opened by a Great grandfather of hers. Great grandfather and his two brothers after arriving in Adelaide from Ireland proceeded to travel east, two of them settling in country Victoria in Wangaratta and Yarrawonga and on to Goulburn NSW for the third. The photo above shows a day of hare hunting and in the background you can see the shop. The Wool and Hide businesses that these men had were called Fellmongerys and I am told that their wool won best wool in England at the time.
Our relatives had to feed their families and make a living and this is just one example of a family business.
I love this particular photo, as I feel it fully portrays a nostalgic and bygone era in Australia. So much has changed as it does with time and now Off the Sheep's back is being replaced with a mining bonanza. Not with out saying that we have not had such bonanzas before. IE Victorian Gold Rush in the 1800s and various other mining booms, some still in operation today.
Todays Australian, can have a very exciting future to look forward to, if we can all pull together and treat our wonderful country with respect. Not only respect for its great land and creatures but also respect for its great people. Those who have walked its mass for thousands of years and those of us who are not so old but a little more new, and also have come to love the Australia we all call Our Home.
Milli.
Image above taken in the Clare Valley South Australia by Milli..
All black and white photos supplied to me by Anne.
No comments:
Post a Comment