Paving the way - and the magic of Tamworth 2026

New year, new book, and new events! It has been some time since I have posted here (nearly 3 years to be exact!), but I am very fortunate to be currently having a work break after being busy working as a consultant full time for the past 4 years, including on some major government initiatives in the health sector.

I have just driven over 3000 kilometres, coming back from a driving trip last weekend, with the destination being the Tamworth Country Music Festival 2026. If you are into country music, you might have already been, or have this as a bucket-list goal? So many people have told me that on the journey there and back. I was brought up on country music, my step-Dad having hailed from the Riverland, and I know more about it than I thought (or probably ever wanted to know!). I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the festival - with lots of public events everywhere, along with many stages and private/paying events across the town (and some neighbouring towns!), and guest singers invited along to the main act you have paid to see, creating a really supportive environment for the singers and up and upcoming stars. I saw acts such as John Williamson (his last Tamworth), Kasey Chambers, Troy Cassar Daley, Amber Lawrence, Ella Hooper, Melinda Schneider, the Hussey Hicks, and little performances from Beccy Cole, Adam Harvey, Shane Nicholson and others, and discovered Henry Wagons, Queenie (at Rockwiz) and many others. I drove via the Barrier Highway on the way there and Western highway on my return (the latter unfortunately during the heatwave!), and got to see more of Australia and visit iconic towns (Broken Hill, Forbes) and things such as 'The Dish' (Parkes Observatory) and the 'Big Things' (i.e. the big Tennis Racquet in Yvonne Goolagong-Cawley's small home town of Barellan, the Big Bogan at Nyngan, and silo art everywhere including near Dorothea MacKellar's home near Gunedah!). Lots of goats and emus (and their kids/chicks) on the Barrier Highway atm!

On the book front, in December 2025 I appeared on the 'Motive and Method' podcast with Tim and Xanthe (a criminal psychologist and criminologist respectively) on my true crime poisoning books titled 'A Poisoning Legacy: One family, two killers'!

Also in December I spoke with Padraic Flaherty from Clare FM in Ireland about my pioneer ancestors the Fahy family. In 1857 my 3x great grandfather Edmund Fahy (24 yrs old) travelled with his two younger siblings Mary (20) and Bridget (just 10 years old !) from Clare, Ireland and settled in Kapunda, and Mount Gambier (Moorak) in South Australia. This was for an upcoming radio documentary that will be released soon.

In other exciting news, I have finally finished my fourth book which will be published this month: Paving the Way: Pioneer Ancestors from England, Ireland, Prussia and Bavaria to South Australia and New Zealand. I will be doing a talk on this at the SA History Festival at the City of Charles Sturt Henley Beach library on the 15th May, and will be at other events such as Indi Verse on the 11th April and Meander Market on the 9th May. Please see the events page on my website for more information.

Paving the Way explores the Pioneer Ancestors who arrived from the UK, Ireland, Prussia and Bavaria and arrived in South Australia and New Zealand from 1837 to 1859. On the front cover is my great grandmother Edith Miller (nee Thompson) with my grandfather - she arrived in Victoria from Little River, near Timaru, New Zealand. Sadly she died aged just 42 years.

The book starts off as an adoption story, in an attempt (from 1997) to find my biological ancestors on my father's side as my father was adopted (he died when I was just 6 years of age). It features some notable South Australians, such as Pioneer Winemaker Johann Gramp, and the Rumbelow family, pioneers of Encounter Bay. It also explores pioneering, interesting and significant women in the family or broader family. This includes lady Mayoress Mahalia Philps, who descended from convict stock (on the other side!) and Miss Mary Battams, a blind woman who travelled Australia with missionary Annie Lock, translated hundreds of books into Braille and made many inventions to make the lives of blind people easier, which were used across England, America and Egypt! There is also great great Elizabeth Heslop/Miller/Abbott - who was a bigamist, lived in three countries, and battled one the biggest narcissists of her day - her 2nd husband, who was reported on in the daily Melbourne newspapers for his scandals! It also covers early reported interactions with Aboriginal South Australians (the Gramp/Schulz family were involved in the Lutheran Aboriginal Missions in South Australia). The regions it covers includes Adelaide (Norwood, Payneham, Athelstone, Campbelltown), Encounter Bay, Moorak (Mt Gambier), Moorook (Riverland), Minnipa (West Coast of South Australia), Port Adelaide/Glanville/Semaphore, Kapunda, the Barossa Valley and Mt Serle, Flindes Ranges, among others. I have been writing this book on and off since 1997/1998, and thought it was nearly complete, when a DNA surprise revealed itself just last October 2025! It is a brave thing to embark on one's family history journey! I have so many people to thank for assistance with this story, including other family historians, people in the family, SAGHS volunteers and others. I hope I have created an interesting family history story - but the ancestors were an interesting bunch!

In other book related news, the first Sisters in Crime SA event will be on the 11th March at The Seven Starts (6.30pm) when Rebecca Heath will be discussing her latest (fourth) book 'The Last Encore' with author Michelle Prak. The book is about a reunion concert with a band doing a documentary, on a remote island - with a killer twist! Everyone is invited to the event, with tickets available at Humanitix.