Gathering time ‘down under’ for expats
Last month the Lochaber Times published the first of an occasional series following the lives of some of the expats who emigrated from Fort William and Lochaber to Melbourne, Australia, in the 1950s and 1960s.
Melbourne’s south-eastern suburb of Frankston is home to so many families from the Fort William area that it is nicknamed by the Scottish expats as ‘Little Fort William’.
These families include the Murrays, Mackenzies, MacLeans, MacLarens, MacInnes, MacDonalds, Clarksons, MacIvers, Gunns, Clarks, Pattersons, Thompsons and Frews.
It is thanks to former Lochaber residents Trudi Mackenzie and her husband David that we can keep upto-date with the comings and goings in ‘Little Fort William’.
Bearing in mind it is now summer ‘down under’, it is Highland gathering season.
David told the Lochaber Times: ‘At a Highland gathering in Bundanoon, a small country town that changes its name to Brigadoon each year for the gathering, I had my usual stall selling family crest boxes and signs.
‘It was the Inverlochy sign that drew the attention of two sisters – Mary and Ann McNeal.
‘Our families were neighbours in Inverlochy during the war years. I was born in the village and Mary and Ann lived in Abrach Road.
‘They have recently visited Fort William, attended the Mòd and caught up with old friends.’
‘It was the Inverlochy sign that drew the attention of two sisters – Mary and Ann McNeal’