The final famous family photo that everyone in my family knows is the photo of George Waddell’s Two Mile Hotel, part of Gympie, Queensland, Australia.

George WADDELL was born in 1862 in Clare, county Amargh, Northern Ireland, and arrived in Australia in ~1868 as a 6 year old with his parents Thomas Malcolm WADDELL (1838-1878) and Mary Ann BEST (1843-1893) [1]. There are a lot of family stories about why the Waddells emigrated to Australia (for another post!) George followed the goldrush across Australia, including going to Victoria to go “cyaniding” to make enough money to come back and buy the Two Mile Hotel [4], which he then ran for several decades, followed by the Kin Kin store and postoffice. He died in 1936 [1].

This photo of the Two Mile Hotel was taken around 1912 and has the Waddell family out the front. There is probably also a copy of this photo in the Gympie Library [2] and it also appears in a family history book that includes many of George Waddell’s descendants [3]. In 1978, Jim Waddell gave an interview for the “Sundowner” where he identified some of the people in the photo: George Waddell (far left), young Jim Waddell and three of his sisters. In Feb 2020, Kerry Cassidy added that its his grandmother Edith Waddell out the front holding Jean Waddell, so there is only one sister left to identify….

My eye is always drawn to the man sitting on the steps in white shirt and waistcoat, next to the dog, but we don’t know who he is either!

Sources:

[1] George Waddell obituary 30 Dec 1936 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/182414086?searchTerm=george%20waddell&searchLimits=l-state=Queensland

[2] Gympie Library photo of George Waddell and the Two Mile Hotel. I haven’t seen the photo first hadn but the description and date are a match. https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/94192836

[3] A shepherd’s pride : a story of Edwards, Parker, Abbott and Dick families and their descendants /​ by Ruth Parker, self published, 2004. Copies at libraries https://trove.nla.gov.au/version/41962596 or from Ruth Parker directly (email me for information on how to contact her). Contains several pages on Edith Waddell’s family with photos.

[4] Story of George Waddell going “cyaniding” in Victoria to get enough gold to buy the hotel told by Dorrie Waddell (George’s daughter) to myself ~1995, and also by my father in 2019.

[5] “Thirsty Days at the Old Two Mile Pub” by Greg Brennan, in The Sundowner, November 1978, pages 11 & 13. Also available at National Library Australia: https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/19159096?q&versionId=22508762

Updated Feb 2020