TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO Saturday March 7, 1998

Fort William’s Cameron Square is in line for a major update if councillors approve plans to spend £540,000 on it.

The project will lead to the square, located just off High Street in the heart of the town centre, being turned into a bespoke events venue.

The renovation will be funded by money from the Scottish Government under a programme which will see more than £3 million allocated to Highland Council for “shovel ready” projects.

Councillors will be asked to approve the Cameron Square upgrade and several other proposals for committees across the Highlands at a full meeting of the council in Inverness.

In a report to be considered at the meeting, Steve Barron, the local authority’s depute chief executive and director of housing and property states: “Currently there is no town centre venue for events.

“It is anticipated that the project £540,000 but this is subject to tender.”

Mr Barron said the proposal had the full support of neighbouring businesses as well as the Fort William Chamber of Commerce, Fort William Community Council and the Outdoor Capital of the UK.

Fort William and Ardnamurchan Councillor will cost

Brian Murphy, who is chairman of the Fort William steering group, said the project could help boost the fortunes of the town’s High Street which has seen a number of shop closures in recent months.

He said: “Of course it’s all dependent on the vote at the meeting but I don’t anticipate there being any problems. I am delighted to see this project included for consideration.

“We’ve been looking for a number of years at how to upgrade Cameron Square and trying to come up with a project to improve this area of the town centre.

“We want to make it an events area which will be more attractive and user-friendly for locals and visitors.”

Australia’s first saint could have a role to play in helping save the closure-threatened Roy Bridge Primary School.

Indeed, the local connection of Blessed Mary MacKillop, whose parents immigrated to Southern Australia from the Braes of Lochaber, may be instrumental in a minor miracle – to keep the school open!

Parents of pupils at the school have been greatly touched by letters and phone calls of support from various parts of Australia, expressing the high regard in which the school is held by the many people who have called there when visiting Blessed Mary MacKillop’s shrine in Saint Margaret’s Church in Roy Bridge.

Blessed Mary, soon to be Australia’s first saint, was the eldest child of Alexander MacKillop from Roy Bridge, and Flora MacDonald from nearby Cranachan, who emigrated in 1838. Both had received their education in Roy Bridge.

Mary, founder of convent and schools in Australia and the Far East, herself visited her ancestral home village in 1873.

Thus over the years, Roy Bridge has become a place of pilgrimage for Australians.

School board chairman Marie-Claire Russell said: “It seems ironic that with Blessed Mary’s mission in life having been to take the schools to the children rather than the children to the schools, the opposite seems to be happening in Roy Bridge.”

But such are the strong and lasting bonds between Roy Bridge and the people of Southern Australia that the Panola School, near Sydney, is in the first stages of twinning with Roy Bridge primary. The links do not end there.

Blessed Mary’s uncle, Alexander Cameron, a shepherd from Inverroy established the Panola Township in 1850.

He would have attended School in Roy Bridge before emigrating.

Now the pupils and staff of both schools are looking forward very much to exchanging information and reinforcing lasting ties.