Ancestors

The footsteps of the ancestors grow fainter with each passing generation. We can follow them only so far before they become trackless. Leaving us to manage our own lives in their absence.

The forefathers and mothers of both sides of my family originated in England and Scotland. They came from the London dockyards and the pastoral workers of Scotland. They were experiencing economic hardship and sought passage to the Australian continent. Terra Australis the Antipodes. A land ten months journey away by sailing ship.

I can only imagine what that ten month journey was like for them and their families. The rationing, the lack of clean clothes and bedding. The patience of being part of the shifts of a sailing boat. The men separated from the women and children. The people who did not make it.

The world would have seemed an incredibly large place to them with its changing horizon, shorelines and peoples. Seeing the West Australian coast line for the first time would have been exciting. Sailing across the Great Australian Bight would have made the Cliffs of Dover seem miniscule. Then the journey up the east coast to New South Wales and Sydney Harbour. Is it any wonder that Australians are magically attracted to the shoreline. We have never left the saphire beauty of its waves and rocks.