Brother and sister reunited in Australia after 35 years

THE luck of the Irish has enabled two siblings to reunite in Australia having lost contact and not seen each other for 35 years.

Patrick Waldron moved to Perth in 1969, and was sent to Kalgoortie-Boulder in 1980 by his employer, a concrete construction company.

He has returned to Ireland twice since moving to Australia, but has not travelled back in 35 years and lost touch with his sister more than 10 years ago.

“I thought I’d never see anyone from my family again,” he said.

Youngest sister Therese Deane, a former resident of Knight’s Park, Castlebar, told the Kalgootrie Miner newspaper she had foraged through phone books and registers to find her brother over the past 10 years but had no luck.

Then, one stormy afternoon, she found a social media group where people could reunite and thought such a group might exist in Kalgoortie-Boulder.

Mrs. Deane, wife of the late Gerry Deane, was advised to contact Diane Stockdale at the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society (EGHS). Ms. Stockdale went to Mr. Waldron’s house to let him know his sister wanted to contact him and he did not have a phone.

Ms. Stockdale said she knew Mr. Waldron as he was a former member of the society - but she could not find him when she went to his Dugan Street home.

Mr. Waldron said he received a note letting him know to contact the EGHS, and went to the society’s Hamilton Street headquarters to talk to this sister on the phone.

“So now we usually speak to each other once a month through Rosie (the society’s executive officer Rosie Stroud) here,” Mrs. Deane said.

“I’m always in bed. It’s about five o’clock in the morning when he rings.”

Mrs. Deane said she had always wanted to come to Australia and waited until Covid-19 restrictions were over to visit her brother.

She arrived by train on March 30 and ‘immediately recognised’ Patrick.

She celebrated his 75th birthday with him and surprised him by organising a phone call with two of their seven siblings.

“I was able to reconnect him with his sister in America and his brother in Ireland,” Mrs. Deane said.

She said she doubted she would return to Australia and Mr. Waldron said he was too old to travel, making this probably the last time that would see each other in person.

They said they looked forward to continuing their monthly phone calls with the assistance of the Eastern Goldfields Historical Society.