They came of bold and roving stock that would not fixed abide
They were the sons of field and flock since e'er they learnt to ride
We may not hope to see such men in this degenerate years
As those explorers of the bush - the brave old pioneers. 

Banjo Paterson - The Pioneers 

My inspiration for taking on writing bush poetry began with my love of Australian history and folk lore and in my thirties I undertook the task of tracking down my mum's family the Callaghans.  As my mum's dad died in 1940 at the age of thirty six, he left my grandmother with four little girls under the age of eight.  My grandmother remarried, so over the years contact with my grandfather's family waned.  The task of finding them all took some eight years, but proved to be very rewarding and built up in me a deep respect for all those early pioneers.  Since then, I have also researched the Sewell, Marquard, McDonald and Webster families.   

    There were so many wonderful stories related to me and I felt there had to be some way I could keep them alive.  Unfortunately I wagged it the day they gave singing voices out, so singing was out of the question and then I began to listen to the larrikin bush yarns and poetry of Keith Garvey.  That's it ... I thought and began to write my first poems, which became the contents of my first book.  'Tales of Uncle Jim'.  Since then I have written a collection of eight books and  it has been my goal to keep alive our wonderful heritage, the Aussie character and the Aussie bush humour,  recording in narrative rhyming verse, or bush ballad, and not only recording it on paper, but on albums and also live performances, which, I feel, bring the stories alive.  Today, I am one of a number of bush poets, who in John Laws words are ... keeping the dream alive.

P.S.  I decided to take a page out of Stan Coster's book and have taken the plunge and begun singing my ballads as well.  

      INTERNET GENEALOGY SITES WITH FAMILY INFORMATION POSTED AND CONTACTS FOR INFORMATION

For a summary of my mum's family the Callaghans click here CALLAGHAN 

For a summary of my mum's grandfathers family the Sewells click here SEWELL

For information on my mum's maternal great, great grandparents the McDonald family email: thegrey@tpg.com.au   

For information on my mums's maternal grandmothers family the Marquards click here thegrey@tpg.com.au  

For information on my Dad's family the Webster's click here WEBSTER

 

MERV'S MUM'S FAMILY

DAD & MUM

MUM'S PARENTS

MATERNAL GRANDFATHER

MATERNAL GRANDMOTHER

MUM'S PATERNAL GRANDPARENTS 

MUM'S MATERNAL GREAT GRANDPARENTS

MUM'S PATERNAL  GREAT GRANDMOTHER

MUM'S PATERNAL GREAT  GRAND FATHER

MUM'S MATERNAL GREAT GREAT GRANDMOTHER

MUM'S MATERNAL GREAT  GREAT GRANDFATHER

 

MERV'S DAD'S FAMILY

MY DAD'S FATHER

MY DAD'S MOTHER

MY DAD'S UNCLE HARRY

UNCLE BERT

UNCLE LES

AUNTY ANNIE

Bargara Beach.

Merv and Chris

 

Children: Shane Christian, Meagan Marie, Amanda Megan and Nathan Lee.

 

Jamie Lee, Chris, Sara Skye Rose and Danielle.                         Sarah Skye Rose and Brodie John.

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