Evolution of a Family | history of the writing of the book

Excerpt from Introduction

Around August 2007, I was watching a breakfast program from my home on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, when there was a live cross to The Abbotsford Convent in Melbourne. That cross was to launch me into another dimension that was to change my life and still continues to do so today. Somewhere in the depths of my mind, I just knew that it was Abbotsford Convent where my mother and her sisters had been sent as small children, but because it was a subject that my mother found too painful to discuss, I had assumed that the Convent no longer existed. It is hard to describe the driving impulse I felt to find out more, except to say that every part of me became totally trapped and dedicated to uncovering secrets that had been buried for so long.

Since that day, I have conducted an extensive research into the Kelly and Murray families, the Kellys’ being the family of my mother’s mother and the latter her father’s family. As I uncovered each layer, I soon discovered how vast and remarkable my descendants were, starting from their origins in Ireland and ending in the early 1930’s. At this point I decided the secret part of the story had been told and subsequent generations would gain an insight into where they came from. I have made the central character to the story, my grandmother Georgina Sarah Murray nee Kelly because her life had the most impact on my mother and her siblings. It is a sad story that begins like many other stories which tells about the struggles of the Irish under British rule, the Irish famine and those that emigrated to Victoria to find a better life. There is John O’Halloran Kelly and Thomas James Murray who arrived in the late 1850’s with John’s son going on to be a pioneer of North Eastern Victoria, and marrying the invincible Eliza Down. Thomas Murray also arrived in North Eastern Victoria and found his wife Bridget Stephens by more traditional means, and became hugely successful both financially and socially. It tells the story of the Victorian goldfields and land selection, and paints a picture of the political and social landscapes of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. But where this story differs from just being a family history is my concentration on the first generation Australians from both families, and what transpired to make this a story worth telling.

The union between Georgina and Patrick Murray is the basis of the story, but the brothers and sisters of the couple are not forgotten as each played a part in one another’s lives. There are the older brothers of Georgina who spent their adult lives in NSW and Qld, and her younger siblings who had both eventful and changeable lives, especially her adored brother Jim, who was killed in WW1 just weeks before Armistice. Then there are Patrick’s sisters who were strong women in their own right, and a brother who died long before his time. But the real subject of the story is Patrick’s alcoholism which contributed so cruelly to the lives of Georgina and her children. This is all part of the secret that was buried for so long about how Georgina’s children were put into care, the girls into the Good Shepherd Convent at Abbotsford and the boys into St Vincent de Paul’s Boys Orphanage in South Melbourne. Throughout I have never wavered in my belief that the events that occurred over a century in time are relevant to how we lead our lives today. I also set out to try and understand why Georgina’s children suffered their fate with so many relatives on both sides of the family. I am sure older members of the family who have now passed away would not approve of my intrusion into their lives, and I am very mindful of their attitudes. However, by just knowing and acknowledging the wrongs, the hidden shames and the reality of the time, it has left me with the view that at last I think I now understand.