Debra Vaughan. Photo: Donna Pendergast, Rainbow Star

Thank you so much for your kind wishes, your attendance & from our helpers & performers, your hard work on the day. It was valued by all there, & the gathering & the unveiling were a great success. We were graced with the company of people including those rarer South Australian descendants, interested parties from Chicago, Donegal & New South Wales. A blessing was given us by John O'Reilly's appearance with the Briggs family, Lorna & Katherine Briggs & daughter Tahlia, Lorna being Victor Briggs' mother, he who gave the Welcome to Country at the inaugural 1998 ceremony. It was marvellous to see people who had shared Sydney's ceremony at the end of August, & a large young part of the audience. There was even an Irish Famine Orphan family reunion contingent.

Our MC Dr Val Noone always leads a segment for descendants to share their family & orphan's names & ship, & there seemed to be a particularly rich sharing of oral history throughout the day. Our Member for Williamstown, Wade Noonan MP, a tireless worker & great supporter of local history & the Bay Trail Markers, spoke of his family's early beginnings in Williamstown. Our new Mayor, Councillor Sandra Wilson is fascinated by the Orphans' story, & spoke with depth & understanding. She tellingly made the link of modern day people trafficking, with the various ways of moving populations by governments & profiteers more focused on exploitation, than all profiting from sharing hearts, humanity & assets.

Our Guest Speaker, Dr Liz Rushen clearly shared her panoramic grasp of the early female immigrants' era, with A Trail of Emigration; for short example, instancing re-location being touted in Irish Post Offices & from the pulpit. My speech The Kindness of Strangers, was a melange of local & oral history stories aligned with the latest developments in our research, highlighting the many facets of concern for the Orphans' beginnings & their journeys through the generations.

To share just two leading lights, Felix Molski's work through kosciuszkoheritage.com with the gifting of free copies of the documentary DVD The Strzelecki Film enumerating the Polish explorer of Australia, Sir Paul Strzelecki's innovative humanitarian work relieving Irish families during the Great Famine. I am sure many of you Irish Famine Orphan descendants like me, are touched repeatedly by how strangers take to the Orphans' stories, moved by their suffering & experiences.

IFO Bay Trail Marker, Debra Vaughan, Photo: Donna Pendergast, Rainbow Star

Hobsons Bay IFO Bay Trail Marker, Jake Gallagher, Williamstown, Photo: Gallagher Family

Queue IFO Bay Trail Marker, Photo: Donna Pendergast, Rainbow Star

The second aspect is of the amazing finds being generated even as we speak by Christine O'Donnell's ongoing project of digitising all "IFO business" on the Public Record Office of Victoria's website, & the Irish Government's Reaching Out website www.irelandxo.com/ showcasing the work of precious local history guides back in Ireland. Long may the work & knitting together of the lost souls' diaspora continue.

Towards the end of the day, Dr Noone spoke of the old Celtic belief that the Other Worlds were not above or below us, but interwoven with our daily reality, as there was a palpable powerful presence generated by years of gathering at the port around Famine Rock, & its counterpart across the seashore path, a Grandmothers' portal if you will, the Irish Famine Orphans' Bay Trail Marker. Hobsons Bay was congratulated for its initiation of the Marker by previous Mayor Angela Altair, part of a 23 kilometre trail around the Western bays, & guiding my telling the background & tale of the Orphans' journey, with six ships to Melbourne; Sarah O'Malley and second ship Pemberton[/u] underscore the personal perspective.

Like so many pioneer stories, one story can illuminate a never-ending panoply of relatedness. In starting her working life by taking the brig [i]Raven with 37 other Orphans to Portland, she worked for seminal pioneers of Portland such as the Allisons, Hentys & Learmonths, as well as for herself & family as a seamstress, & spent part of her mothering life on the Bendigo goldfields. I encourage you to record your stories as they are the building blocks in understanding humanity through one's own families, & to pay it forward for tomorrow's genealogists.

Special mention must go to the sterling work of our soundman Ned Dawson, & the double duty of the Brophys, Margie & Vince as steady rocks within the eddies. Our musicians' playing is always a joy of the day, so too young local Jake Gallagher's wonderful recital of James Wallace's poem, Wallace being the second Headmaster of St Mary's Primary School, Williamstown. We are lucky to have such stellar performers to hearten & inspire us; this also includes a rare appearance of Billie Finnie, the kindly eyed Irish Terrier.

Below I shall tell you some IFO references which you can enjoy, or even add to your own family history holdings. Keep those stories & updates coming folks. If the descendants of Pemberton's Eliza Darcy would like to contact me & tell her story, I may be able to link you with an eager descendant.

Debra Vaughan
Irish Famine Orphan Heritage
Commemoration Day Event Manager
Great Famine Memorial Williamstown
(03) 9397 6619