It's been a huge week. Last minute things for
National Family History Month which starts on 1 August and we now have events in every state and territory. Fantastic. Most of Thursday was taken up with travelling - first to Brisbane and the airport then the long flight across Australia to the west coast and Perth. Usually when I fly over the view out the window is of a dry, barren country with lots of salt pans and sand dunes. This time for quite a good part of the way there seemed to be lots of green and even some waterholes and creeks. Must be all that winter rain that Queensland has been getting.
It was lovely being met at Perth airport by Lorraine from
Swan Genealogy who kindly boarded me during my stay in the west. This meant I didn't have to worry about how to get to venues, just simply sit in Lorraine's car. I hadn't realised how spread out Perth was but it seems to have a very interconnected freeway system.
 |
| L-R Shauna Hicks, Shannon Lovelady and Lorraine Clarke |
Friday morning I managed to catch up with two archival colleagues and we had coffee and then lunch while we discussed what is happening in archives and libraries today as well as reminiscing about the good old days. One of my friends suggested we should do it more than once every 10 years - has it really been that long since I had seen them?
The afternoon was dedicated to the launch of NFHM at the Perth Office of the
National Archives of Australia. I'm glad Lorraine knew the way as it is a little out of the city. Here it was good to catch up with old work colleagues from my time working for the NAA. I also met up with other launch attendees and one of NFHM's major sponsors
Finders Cafe. The Perth Office Director of NAA gave a brief talk on Project Albany and the keynote speaker was Shannon Lovelady talking about the Western Australian Gallipoli and Western Front Dead. Then there was a delicious afternoon tea and time to chat and peruse some of the NAA treasures. My full report is a blog post on my website and you can read it
here.
 |
| One half of the audience at the WAGS seminar |
Saturday was another full on day with the Making History seminar with the
Western Australian Genealogical Society at the City of Perth Library. There was a presentation by Finders Cafe and I gave three talks - Love Sex and Damn Lies, Demolishing Brickwalls and It's Not All Online. Copies of my presentations can be seen on the
Resources page of my website, scroll down to Presentations.
From the verbal feedback I think everyone had a great day and then it was time to relax.
 |
| A pineapple sling |
A small group of us went to the historic Treasury building where I enjoyed a lovely cocktail, complete with purple straw and violets. Then it was on to a wonderful Chinese banquet with some of the WAGS committee. I slept very soundly that night.
 |
| A mint hot chocolate and truffle |
Sunday was a day of rest and although a bit cold and wet we headed out to the Margaret River area where I enjoyed the delights of the Margaret River Chocolate Factory and other foodie places. We had lunch at the historic Guildford Hotel which has been restored since a disastrous fire last year. There was even opportunity to taste some of those wonderful Western Australian wines.
Today I start the long trek home and with luck will be arriving just in time to go to bed. I'm not even sure what is coming up this week but I will regroup tomorrow. I know there are more talks coming up and I really should blog some of my
31 Activities for NFHM plus a meeting of the
Bribie Island Historical Society committee first thing tomorrow so perhaps one day at a time during this busy time might be best.
I hope everyone has a chance to do something during National Family History Month 2016. Until next time, happy researching.
No comments:
Post a Comment