Wednesday 3 Jan 2007 - Townsville - Cania Gorge

Happy New Year!!!!

I have finally finished making the new covers for our lounge.

On the Wednesday before Christmas I flew to Townsville to visit my parents and Steve, Heather and Justin. Luckily, the Dr had cleared me to travel! Everyone was looking fine. Especially Justin in his reindeer antlers!


I had a great time in Townsville. The Wednesday was Steve' Birthday and Thursday was Mum & Dad's wedding anniversary.



We had some really nice meals out, and Steve took us swimming at the new Riverside complex, Kissing Point Rockpool, and to the top of Castle Hill to take in the views.

Mum and Dad on The Strand.

 

Steve & Justin

 Heather & Justin
I was able to get out to the Uni and was finally able to find out the story
of the cousins who were lost in a boat between Townsville and Magnetic Island, from the newspaper. It happened in 1932, and Andrew Kenealy (one of my cousins) and two of his cousins, called Young were lost and only the boat was found. Dad also filled me in on his maritime past, including copies of his certificates.


Steve, Heather, Justin and I also went down to the
Strand to see 'The Stable' a local joint church reenactment of the real Christmas story set up in a huge air-conditioned tent, where you moved from one tableau to the other. Justin really enjoyed the live animals, with camels, sheep, goats, a donkey, calf etc.

Heather & Justin

Christmas morning I flew home to Rockhampton and
we had a nice lunch just with the three of us, Darryl, Marc and I. In the afternoon we watched a movie on Marc's new home theatre. Very impressive! On Boxing Day I played tennis and 10-pins bowls against Marc - he thrashed me, even though he was playing me left-handed! I did improve as the games went on..so I guess there is consolation in that. In the afternoon Darryl and I drove to Gladstone and spent an enjoyable evening with George and Eileen. It started raining as we were driving down.

Next morning we headed off early towards Cania Gorge to meet up with the rest of the 4x4 club at Mungungo Pub. The group headed off to pick up Tom who was going to be our guide for the day, but unfortunately, it had rained about 35mm overnight and he felt the roads would be too dangerous. I got a lovely photo, though, as the rain had made the bark on the local gumtrees look fantastic.

Despite the trip being called off, we decided to drive to Monto and had morning tea at a local cafe. Other ventures were also thwarted when it was discovered that the local Monto History Visitor's Centre was closed. Darryl & I decided that we would head home, as the rain continued to fall.

It must have been providence, as when I arrived home there was an e-mail from Ancestry.com offering 3 days free access, until Dec 31. I got on and finally broke through one of my long-standing brick walls. I finally found Janet McTaggart on the 1851 Scottish Census living in Edinburgh with the Farquharson family, as a child's maid. Francis Farquharson became the 10th laird of Finzean and took up residence on the estate, which finally explains how she got to meet and marry Alexander Coutts! Apart from that, I also made contact with another researcher who was able to fill in further details on the Parker family. In the days since then I have made several other contacts on other branches of both sides of the family - just fantastic! Brick walls are crumbling all around me! I was up doing research on Ancestry as the New Year came around. There were a few fireworks out the window, but it was a pretty quite evening really. I am back at work this week, and continuing with my new genealogy contacts in the evenings.