The First Walshs of Walshs Rd, South Purrumbete | Community
The First Walshs of Walshs Rd, South Purrumbete
Phone: +61 434 045 261
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25.01.2022 KEVIN FRANCIS WALSH, RIP Kevin Walsh, the youngest son of Bernie and Nora Walsh, died in Ballarat last Monday, 3 August 2020. Kevin, aged 70, was a great grandson of Maurice and Margaret Walsh, the founders of the South Purrumbete Walsh clan in Australia. The first photo is Kevin as a small boy being held by his dad Bernie and his adored mum, Nora, and three brothers Mick (Ballarat), Bill (who died last year) and Maurie (Mansfield). The second shows him with his wife Margar...et (nee Morrissey, ex Koroit). It was taken in Denmark in 2008 when many of us gathered at the crash site of Cyril Walsh, Bernie’s brother, to commemorate Cyril’s death during WWII in 1943. In the third, Kev is with Margaret and two of their grandchildren. Kev and Margaret have two sons, Reagan (40) and Alex (35). Justine (Ocean Grove), Margaret’s daughter, is also very much part of the family. Kevin was Courtney Walsh’s godfather. Kevin grew up in Cape Clear, went to St Patrick’s College Ballarat, and was a primary school teacher. He taught in a number of schools but ended up teaching for many years at the same school in Ballarat as his brother Bill’s wife, Deneise. Since covid struck, he’s been home schooling his 7-year old granddaughter Ella long distance. He was a keen golfer and had many friends at the Ballarat golf club. Margaret told me one of Kevin’s mates said to him the other day: ‘Walshie, you are the only bastard I know who hasn’t got any enemies. And you barrack for Collingwood, but I still love ya.’ Kevin somehow contracted scleroderma, a rare and painful disease that affects the connective tissue and causes a tightening of the skin. As the problem advanced, it seriously affected his quality of life, and particularly his feet, voice and capacity to hold things (he had to give up golf). Despite burning pain, itchiness, weight loss and heavy medication, he never complained, said Margaret. They’d planned on a holiday in Europe in August. Reagan and Alex have paid the following lovely tribute to Kevin on Margaret’s facebook page. They described their dad as ‘a fun, intelligent, gentle man, who loved living and made people see that they could too’. (Posted with help from Kevin’s wife Margaret in Ballarat and his brother Maurie in Mansfield)
25.01.2022 CAPE CLEAR ISLAND IN IRELAND Anne Pitman adds this interesting comment to the chapter in MoM on Cape Clear. "Mum, in her capacity as Secretary of the Cape Clear Historical Society, receiving a letter over 25 years ago addressed to the Mayor of Cape Clear, Australia. It’s true. She replied and a friendship has since been nurtured with a Dr Eamon Lankford, firstly with Mum and in the last 20 years with me. He took Max and I to the island in 1999 where he helped set up a museu...m there. We stayed overnight and met him next morning at the wharf he somewhat hung over after too much Craic the evening before! Christine and I also visited Eamon and his wife in Cork,, where he lives, in 2003. He visited Australia over 10 years ago, their son was working in Sydney, and they came to Melbourne. I met them and drove them to Cape Clear where Eamon gave a talk to the school kids and a CD presentation giving the CC Island’s story. He invited the children to write to the kids back in Ireland, and vice versa. Sadly, I cannot say whether they continue to do so. The Historical Committee hosted afternoon tea for them. I drove them back to Melbourne in an horrendous rain storm. They literally jumped out of the car and ran for their hotel door in Burke Street and I drove off never to see them again. However, we exchange Christmas cards and news and he always asks after Mum. You’d like him. I have a couple of books he gave me that he wrote about the island so you’re welcome to have a read if you’re interested. See more
21.01.2022 ONE STOP SHOP for MoM You can now refer anyone interested in Milking Our Memories to Google. Simply type in Milking Our Memories by Pat Walsh and a page of info is provided. Images of the book cover, excerpts of text and photos, key words, where to get it as an e-book, connection to this Facebook page, Tony Wright's piece in The Age that's been so very helpful, my other books etc. Too easy! Just five words, one click. Missing though are references to points of sale: Camperdown Newsagency, Collins Booksellers Warrnambool, Cow Licks Bookshop Colac, Blanes Newsagency Colac and me via
21.01.2022 FERRELLI PASQUALE 57776 SOLDATO Pictured below is the troop ship on which Ferrelli Pasquale, the Italian POW who worked on our farm during World War II, was repatriated to Italy in January 1947. (MoM pp. 235-238) The painting has its own story. Reading the book, a Northcote friend, Julie Morris, spotted the name of Ferrelli's ship, the Otranto, and realised it was the same ship on which her husband Joe embarked for Australia from the UK in 1949. The Morris family have always described it as 'the used to be a troop ship'. Using an old postcard with an image of the ship on it that Joe had kept, friends commissioned an artist to do a painting of it for his 60th birthday. It now hangs on their wall at home in Northcote.
19.01.2022 RUTH WALSH'S ANNIVERSARY TODAY, MAY 4 Today is the 24th anniversary of Mum's death in 1996. See p. 302 of Milking Our Memories. She'd turned 88 on 14 April 1996. Until a couple of weeks before her death in Colac hospital, she lived happily at home in Colac where she had re-located from Walshs Rd in 1968. The memoir tells how she outmanoeuvred our attempts to move her to residential care!. This pretty much sums up her remarkable strength of character!
18.01.2022 THE IRISH FAMINE THAT BROUGHT OUR GREAT GRANDMOTHER, MARGARET O'BRIEN, TO AUSTRALIA Further to Margaret's lucky escape from the terrible famine and the workhouse in Nenagh, told in Milking our Memories, an Irish friend, Tom Hyland, sent me this excerpt from a recent interview given by the Irish singer Declan O'Rourke. (Google Declan to hear him sing Galileo on the Ray D'Arcy Show). The interviewer comments: ... There is also a personal element to what might just be his (Declan O'Rourke's) magnum opus to date, as the Chronicles project first took root after the award-winning songwriter discovered his grandfather a painter, of "real dreamy-looking, west-of-Ireland stuff" had been born in an Irish workhouse. "I (Declan) always knew my grandad had a kind of mysterious past, but it was only after he died in 1980 that my mother and some of her siblings tried to find out more about his background," O'Rourke explains. "Then, in 2000 we found his birth certificate in the records office and it listed his birthplace as the workhouse in Gort, Co Galway which was about 20 minutes' drive from where he grew up. "He was born in 1916, so it wasn't Famine times, but this discovery made me determined to find out more and the next thing, I stumbled upon a book in a Dublin book store in the bargain bin, as it happened and it was all about the workhouses of Ireland. "I started reading a chapter about a man who had carried his wife from the workhouse to their old home, mile after weary mile, and was discovered next morning dead, his wife's feet held to his breast as if he was trying to warm them... "The hairs stood up on the back of my neck at that story the inspiration behind Poor Boys Shoes and I really connected with the beauty, the power and the sadness of it. You learn empathy from a story like that." More than that, the story led to what became a "belated history lesson" for O'Rourke, who says he didn't learn much about the late-1840s Famine while at school. "We didn't know any of this; it was like a footnote in history when we were at school and the Famine was just brushed over," he says. "People were afraid to delve into the history for a long time because it was so explosive and stirred up so many passionate feelings. "I think the Famine is a wound still not healed and it lurks under the surface, so we need to take these things apart. I wanted to look at it in a compassionate way, in a way to help us to heal."
17.01.2022 GREG WALSH, MAURICE AND MARGARET'S GREAT GRANDSON, PICKING UP HIS PARCEL OF MILKING OUR MEMORIES FROM THE PANMURE GENERAL STORE/PO NEAR WARRNAMBOOL. After opening his parcel and reading some pages, Greg declared: 'The book is a joy'. I responded: 'It was a joy to write too'.
17.01.2022 TELLING THE WHOLE STORY/FOOD FOR THOUGHT. Milking Our Memories (MoM) makes reference to two historic figures who are both mentioned in today's Age in the contex...t of 'tearing down historic statues' in several countries following the Black Lives Matter protests. One is Edmund Barton, p. 204, Australia's first prime minister (photo below). Our great grandmother, Susannah Barton (1820-1908) was Edmund's first cousin. Not mentioned in MoM is that Barton was a white supremacist. He believed that Asians and Blacks were 'unequal and inferior' to white races. Aborigines in Port Macquarie are calling for his statue in that town to at least be moved from its place of honour. The other is Angus McMillian, referred to on p. 206 of MoM. McMillan, a tough Scot, who opened up Gippsland to white settlement, was also guilty of leading massacres of local Kurnai aborigines. Because of that, the federal electorate named in his honour was renamed Monash in 2018 but Kurnai Aborigines are now being asked if that is enough. Lidia Thorpem a Kurnai Aborigine, has shared her thoughts on the front page of The Age. She is well kwown in my suburb, Northcote, having represented us in the Victorian Parliament. I liked what she told The Age. She basically said what's the point of removing cairns and other physical evidence of McMillan in Gippsland if that also removes public awareness of the injustices he committed. 'Let's tell the whole story and we will all learn something from it', she said. As someone who's worked on 'memory' in East Timor and argued for the preservation of some of the physical evidence of the Indonesian occupation, I agree.
13.01.2022 COMMENT ON MoM AND CAMPERDOWN CEMETERY Ian Teese, an international consultant based in Glen Waverley, made the following comment. He grew up on a dairy farm in Lardner, south of Warragul, rode ponies to school and did farm work before and after school. Sound familiar?! These days he does a lot of work in the Western District, particularly Cobden. "The book is very well presented. Further to the excellent section on aboriginals around Camperdown. Camperdown was originally built further north on the very wet flats near the abattoir/Cobden House. When it was moved south to the railway line, they also shifted the cemetery up to the hill where it is now. Most of the graves were shifted but I understand the grave of a trooper/policeman who had been very aggressive towards the aboriginals was left there as his behaviour was so bad."
13.01.2022 Colac Herald write up of MoM. 19 June 2020. The Herald is quoted freely in the memoir and deserves to be supported.
13.01.2022 DO YOU RECOGNISE THIS NAME? Someone called John O'Honothey (or John O Honolley or....???) was at our clan gathering in Camperdown in 2016 and signed the visitors book. But the surname is difficult to make out. Any leads? His address is 8/50 Eastern Beach Rd, Geelong. If you know him kindly help me with the correct spelling of his name, his mobile and email. Thanks.
10.01.2022 FEEDBACK ON MILKING OUR MEMORIES 'It's a great read, whether or not you are a Walsh, by a wonderful story teller'. Paula Keogh (Thornbury, Melbourne) 'Great timing for a good read. Loving it and taking it slowly so it doesn't finish too quickly. Just wish our parents were here to read it. How did you get such clear copies of old photos?' Donna Maree Marshall (Corlette, NSW)... 'Loved the story about when I was suspended over the underground tank by Peter and John! Didn't know Cyril learned the violin. Will ask him to play me a tune!' Mick Walsh (Ballarat) 'Finished the book and want to congratulate you on a great job. Really enjoyed reading it. Can't wait for my family to read it.' John Walsh (Walshs Road) 'Did you write about Green Gables racing at Cape Clear, twice I think, though don't think he won? Bernie would pick up Mum and I in his single-seater and take us to the racetrack'. Basil Murphy (Smythes Creek, near Ballarat) 'I loved it. Thank you. It will be a family treasure'. Anne Pitman (Wodonga) 'Where's the other four copies I ordered? I want to give them to my kids!' Andrew Walsh (Portland) 'It makes me go all emotional'. Moya Fleming (Camperdown) 'Dad, your book is sensational. I can't wipe the smile from my face'. Trish Walsh (Footscray), that’s her in the photo.
10.01.2022 35th ANNIVERSARY OF JOHN AND JUSTIN WALSH Johnny and Justin were Walshs of Walshs Road, children of John and Nan and great great grandsons of Maurice and Margaret. Aged 21 and 20, they were killed in a road crash on 11 May 1985. See Milking Our Memories pp. 325-326. Their sister Mellisa sent me this sweetest of photos taken of them at a depleted South Purrumbete state school in 1973. They were about 9 and 8 respectively. Johnny is far right rear (beside Mellisa who is beside Catherine); Justin is second from right at the front.
08.01.2022 7-YEAR OLD ALBA'S RESEARCH ON HER GREAT, GREAT, GREAT, GRANDMUM, MARGARET O'BRIEN Here is a school project on the first Walshs done by Alba Hoffman, 7 years old, 3 c. Alba is the granddaughter of Donna Maree Marshall (nee O'Sullivan). The project was part of Alba's on-line lesson about immigration. I pretended to be Margaret O'Brien and Alba asked me lots of questions about my childhood, life in the workhouse in Ireland, and my trip by sailing ship to Australia. I was very ha...ppy to be interviewed as the family memoir is also so that her generation know our story. Alba said doing the project was fun and that she 'liked learning about my family'. Her long interview (nearly an hour) had to be presented in a 3 minute package. Perhaps other kids in the clan might like to follow Alba's example. Here is her project to click on and scroll down bit by bit. https://docs.google.com//1IV--lmGs1AN_Nc1eyWnkGfQmcr/edit 7 See more
07.01.2022 Mary Mutton (Darcy) sent this photo of the South Purrumbete school via Carla Darcy, daughter of Brian and Margaret. John and Peter are both in the back row and probably in grade 5 or 6 at the time, so I guess it was taken in the mid 1940s.
05.01.2022 WHAT'S FOR DYNASTY? Warrnambool Standard write up on Milking Our Memories (Saturday liftout 4 July). Not sure about 'a Western DIstrict dynasty that spans 150 years' but, allowing for poetic license, it's got a certain ring to it. Fans of the Coodabeen Champions will recognise my heading. https://www.standard.net.au//milking-our-memories-forging/
05.01.2022 CONSULTING WITH IRISH SPELLING ADVISOR Focussed readers of Milking Our Memories will have seen the reference on pp. xiv-xv to 'Dr' Anne McLynskey, a native of Ireland who I turned to for authoritative advice on spelling. Providentially she lives a few doors from me in Northcote and often walks past my front gate, so consulting her was both gratis and easy. Yesterday Annie and I visited her (momentarily violating virus protocols) to give her the memoir. As the video shows, she got a huge kick out of her mentions. My note to her reads 'For Annie McLynskey, a fountain of knowledge on all things Irish that never dries up'. She laughed out loud and said 'You mean, who never stops talking'. That's her to a T.
04.01.2022 FOURTH GENERATION WALSH BIRTHDAY Michael (Mick) Walsh had his 82nd birthday on Monday (18 May). He is Maurice and Margaret's great grandson and third eldest - after Peter and John Walsh - of the current generation of Walshs of Walshs Rd. Mick grew up in Cape Clear (see chapter in Milking Our Memories), lives in Ballarat and is a vocal supporter of the Geelong Cats. He's put his birthday celebrations on hold until the covid restrictions are loosened further. He has read and enjoyed the memoir a lot and is referenced in several places, including in the beautiful photo of him as a small child on page 153.
04.01.2022 PRAISE FOR MILKING OUR MEMORIES Tony Wright, Special Writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, writes: Walsh, "a story teller with a rare gift for words... has returned to his childhood to write an arresting history of his dairy-farming family just south of the Stony Rises at South Purrumbete, a land of ancient volcanoes and lakes between Colac and Camperdown in the Western District" (of Victoria).
03.01.2022 Camperdown Historical Society invite Robert Wuchatsch, a resident of the Stoney Rises and president of the Camperdown and District Historical Society, has invited me to talk to the society (when covid gets off our backs). I'm a bit nervous about it as they are all experts in local history but from another angle it'll be terrific to get them talking about some of the issues raised in the book. You will all be invited. The Society also gave the memoir a plug on its front page.
03.01.2022 TIGERS BIRTHDAY GREETING TO PETER WALSH Toby Nankervis (aka Nanks), Richmond ruck, sent the video message below to Peter for his 84th birthday. Nanks wears no 25, the number worn by Mike Patterson (aka Swamp Fox) when he rucked for the Tigers. The Fox starred in the 1967 grandfinal when the Tigers overcame the Geelong Cats and the Fox outclassed Polly Farmer. Milking Our Memories has several pages on Peter's footy exploits and Patto's 1967 game. See pp. 310-317. The message to Peter confirms that, apart from still being Premiers, the Tiges are leaders in caring for people, including their fans.
03.01.2022 John Walsh promoting MoM in the Camperdown Chronicle (much quoted in the memoir and deserving of our support). 29 May 2020
02.01.2022 MY DEAR CUSHLA Grandma Bridget Walsh (nee Moran) addressed her daughter Maureen as Cushla when she wrote to wish her a happy 18th birthday in 1941. (Milking Our Memories, p. 107-9) A beautiful term, it means 'beat of my heart' in Irish. Several of you have said the same and tole me you'd start using it. Grandma's use was the first and only time I'd heard it, until this morning. There's a letter in today's Age signed by a woman in Richmond called Cushla McNamara. So it's a gorgeous name too. The photo below shows the same Bridget smiling at Peter as a toddler (now 84) and surely addressing him as Cushla. (Her expression is hard to see in the photo but I can zoom in on the computer and she has a big smile on her face).
