Chapter:

Murdoch Family Reunion
March 1998
Hobart Tasmania
176 years of family history in Australia

The Morning Tea was followed by a Boat Cruise and lunch aboard the CARTELA, an historic Hobart ferry. The boat cruise went both down and upstream from Sullivan's Cove, with the commentary featuring historical landmarks and some insight into what life would have been like in Hobart in 1822.

The Boat Cruise was followed by a bus tour around the historical buildings associated with the family in the Hobart area. This included Murrayfield at Glenorchy (where WILLIAM grew Tasmania's first cider apples) Sandy Bay and Battery Point. The tour was lead by Tom and Anne Vincent, who provided an excellent commentary. Afternoon tea was had at Mt. Nelson Signal Station which was followed by a walking tour down the old tracks to Sandy Bay lead by Tom Murdoch. There were so many old tracks that the family was quickly scattered over the mountain, but somehow they were all found and put back on buses.

On Saturday evening the Reunion Dinner was held at Siscos Restaurant on Hobart Waterfront. The dinner was attended by over 120 people. The tables were organised so that people at each table were a similar age, but also attendees had maximum opportunity to meet people from other branches. The Master of Ceremonies was Rob Murdoch, Between each course he invited each of the five branches of the family in turn to have representatives come forward with amusing stories of other family members, All the stories presented were very funny and the room was soon reverberating with laughter and goodwill, As many of the people featured were dead they had no right of reply, but some stories were told of people present that lead to instant vocal denials or right of reply, It was a great evening of family fun and getting to know each other.

On Sunday morning over 250 family members gathered at Craigow for a tour of the property by Tom Murdoch. This was followed by morning tea provided by members of the Dunbabin family, and an unveiling of a plaque to DR. JAMES MURDOCH'S wife Grace Beveridge. The plaque was unveiled by Mrs. Helen Martin (JOHN'S BRANCH) who was the last descendant to live at Craigow. During the morning photographs of firstly the entire group and then the descendants attending the Reunion, were taken at the same spot in front of Craigow House where the 100th. Year Reunion photographs was taken.

The morning at Craigow was followed by a Thanksgiving Service was held at the Cambridge Church followed by the inspection of the Murdoch monument and other family graves.

This activity was followed by a Spit Roast lunch held at the Cambridge Hall. Due to the beautiful weather that blessed the weekend the lunch was eaten mainly outside. Lunch was followed by a sports competition held across the road on the Cambridge Oval. A variety of family novelty and fun games and competition were held, with points being awarded for each event to the winning branch. The competition was won by JOHN'S Branch and the major prize of an Ansett flight to an interstate city, was won by Alex Wettenhall from Sydney. Alex was an appropriate winner as the only things that went wrong all weekend was that the Wettenhal's baby sister was late on Friday evening and their little children were amongst a lot of adults lost on the slopes of Mt. Nelson on Saturday afternoon. At the end of the afternoon the organizing committee were thanked and the young members of the family challenged to organize another Reunion in March 2022 to celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the arrival of the family in Australia.