As promised here are just a few of the images from Bill’s 90th Birthday.

The 20th July 2011 is 90 years since Bill’s birth in 1921. Here is a few minutes to show just some of the things that Bill has been up to in that time, in his own words.

Then there was the luncheon at the Biloela RSL

On 24 July we all got together to wish Bill the best for his 90th birthday. A few images will follow

I could talk all day about who Bill Kath is and what it’s like to hang out with him but why don’t we just let him show us a little of his world. In his words, humor and laconic style…

I videoed this during my stay with Judy and Bill during February 2010 when I was recording the audio of his life story that is also found on this site. I thought it was important to capture some of his essence and passion for the things that he talks about in the audio.

If you want to see a bit more of the old machinery that Bill loves so much check out the details of the Callide Dawson Machinery Preservation Society

It’s quite a process that I had no idea about when I started with Your Story, back in ’07 but at least now I have some idea of what I’m doing.

Bill in his Moke

I haven’t messed around much with the audio, just removed a lot of long pauses as well as a lot of ums and arrgs that end up in any thoughtful conversation. Quite a few times Bill and I came back to the recorder to hear more of his life and he would tell a story of some other time to where we left off, about an earlier era or jump ahead to something more recent. For this reason I cut the audio and where these were major subjects I placed them back into the rough chronological order that the audio most suited. However many times Bill would just pop back to tell a yarn about a previous time while we were talking about a subject and in those cases I simply let it slide as to move it around would have broken with the conversation that we were having. After all, I hope you, the listener find these conversations interesting as though you are simple listening in, so I didn’t want to break with the flow much with too many edits.

I’m surprised that I finished with five hours of edited audio in the end as I started with only a little over six hours. I hope it’s not tedious for those who choose to listen. I have now listened to everything about four or five times and I find it engaging but I’ll have to come back in a few months to get a real feel for it.

As for who will listen to this stories, I’m not sure. I hope that my greater family listen, as this is our heritage, remembered by the only person now around who was there, especially the very early days in the 20′s and 30′s.

I think some of the general stories of life in those early days and the experiences of the war years particularly, The Battle of Milne Bay may be of interest to the wider community. It was with these points in mind in how I edited the audio, I never intended the audio to be listened to and for consumption by the general public as it’s aimed at a far more specific group of individuals as I’ve mentioned above. To make this suitable for everyone I would have edited it to maybe an hour much like I do with Your Story but this is an entirely different animal.

For these reasons I think the content list with time stamps is valuable as if someone is wanting to research some aspects of these stories some time in the future it’s easy to see what is in the audio and go directly to that part of it. That I think adds to the value of the audio and if they then choose to listen to additional parts of the audio that is entirely up to them.

So now the most important content, which is the audio that I recorded in February is complete but this is not the end of the story. I have some video that I wish to edit that I shot while I was in Biloela with Bill which I will post in time. Also as I mentioned to Bill I intend to drop in on him from time to time to record some additional audio as is appropriate.

So the story of Bill Kath is not over, there will be more to come. So if your interested, family or friends, drop in from time to time and see what else Bill has to say.

Oh and thanks Bill for allowing me to record your life, it’s been wonderful.

The 27 April 2009 was the 125 anniversary of Eduard(57) and Antonia (51) Kath migrating in 1884 from Swidwin in what is now

Grave of Antonia & Plaque for Eduard

Poland to Australia with their four children Herman(22) Wilhelm(18) Heinrich(14) Auguste(11). After initially arriving in North Queensland they settled at rural Glenco in South East Queensland just west of Toowoomba.

At the time they were among the founding congregation of the local Lutherian church and  on the 2 May 2009, 125 years since their migration to Australia, Bill’s  family, the descendants of Eduard and Antonia gathered to celebrate on those same church grounds, our family history.

125 Year Celebrations

The previous year at the annual family picnic that Bill’s family have been having at Somerset Dam since 1964 it was announced that 2009 would be the 125 anniversary of the migration and asked if we should have a celebration. To a resounding Yes! Judy and Robyn set about over the following year preparing, contacting and communicating to all the family that the celebrations were on. As you can see from the video we had an outstanding time with family picking over the information and photos of our heritage.

The huge amount of work that went into preparing for this I can’t comprehend but only imagine. I can’t express how much I admire Judy, Robyn and June for the amount of work that went into preparing for this celebration, pulling it all together and the wonderful time that we all had.

This is our family. Good people one and all and it was wonderful to see everyone come together for this once in a lifetime celebration of our heritage.

All the Kaths

A video of Ian’s trip to Swidwin in 2008 is in the  post on his site.

Note: This is an edit and republish of a post originally over at Iam Ian.

This is the start of an experiment and a chance for me to build a web presence for my uncle, my father’s brother, the second oldest and at the time of writing the oldest surviving son of Fred and Helen Kath.

I’ll be shortly sitting down with Bill to record his story. I’m wanting to record audio of his memories, copy some images and maybe even record some video of his current life for others to see. I’ll be placing this content here for my family to share and if Bill is agreeable it will also be available for all to see.

I hope you  enjoy.

Ian Kath

Kurt, Bill,Michele and Kietta-Raye

Brothers - Lyle, Noel and Bill