Getting Back to It

For the past few months, work has taken most of my time, and I have not been able to give much attention to my family history project. That has now changed, and it is good to be back.

For those who have been following Lost Voices, Unearthed Stories, thank you for your patience. For those just finding the site, welcome. This is a project about recovering the lives of ordinary people: convicts, free settlers, and pioneers. In particular, it follows the Anthony, Mazlin, and Poulton families and the world they moved through and helped to shape.

The writing has continued to move forward, and I am now well into Chapter Four. This chapter follows the Mazlin brothers, sons of Thomas Mazlin and Catherine Cook, as they left New South Wales and moved north into Queensland. Their path took them to the Herbert River valley and the Atherton Tablelands, into country that was still difficult to reach and only partly known to those arriving from the south. They were among the settlers who contributed to the early development of Atherton and Herberton in Far North Queensland.

The image above shows the Barron River in flood. This is the river the Mazlin brothers attempted to use to carry their cedar logs to the coast. The attempt failed, and the loss was considerable.

Two posts will follow in the weeks ahead. The first, for Anzac Day on 25 April, will set out the family members lost in the First and Second World Wars: who they were, where they served, and where they died. It is not an easy subject, but it is an important one.

After that, I will return to the Mazlin brothers and their work in the north.

There are stories to tell. It is time to return to them.