Fourth Barlow / Cooley Reunion March 25 & 26th 2006
Descendants of William Barlow and Thomas Todd Cooley gathered for the fourth family reunion at The Willaway Motel Apartments in Ulverstone, Tasmania.
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Plans for the weekend:
Saturday 25th March
Willaway Apartments in Ulverstone is the venue for our weekend, chosen because of its quiet and peaceful atmosphere where we will be able to gather together comfortably and have an opportunity to talk to and get to know each other. There is still accommodation available at Willaway.
I have kept formal arrangements to a minimum because for this particular reunion I am trying to provide a central venue where people can choose to do as they wish. If the weather is favourable we can enjoy the outdoor setting, if not we have a conference room to retreat to.
Anyway it is the people who make an event!
As people are arriving at different times we will aim to have an official opening at 2.00 pm. Afternoon tea will be catered for and if you wish, you can provide a gold coin donation to cover this.
A conference room has been made available to us to use as we wish. I thought we could display any heirlooms, charts, photos etc. there and I will have a computer and scanner set up. We can run slide shows or show DVD's or videos.
I would like to pursue our earlier ideas of compiling a register of family heirlooms and keepsakes. It would be fantastic if you could bring along any items, complete with a written description of what it is, who owned it etc. The idea of writing can be daunting, but really all we need to begin with is just a basic outline. We can digitally photograph any items on the day and we can use the scanner also. It has a slide attachment so if you have any 35 mm slides, you can bring those along to be copied on the day.
The end result will be a register of all sorts of items, everything from fantastic pieces such as Elizabeth Cooley's wedding dress through to letters written by William Barlow in the last years of his life.
In this way they can be shared by all members of the family and more stories about the lives of our ancestors can be documented.
Dinner arrangements for Saturday Evening.
There are a number of places suitable for dining out in Ulverstone. We will provide you with brochures and ideas of places with a variety of food types and prices to choose from. Groups can then organise themselves during the afteroon once they have decided on what they feel like.
The Beachway Motel (just around the corner within easy walking distance) has A La Carte and Set Menus, Diamond Dynasty and Jade Willow both serve Chinese, for seafood head to Pedro's on the wharf, Cafe RA and the town's two major pubs are also worth visiting.
Sunday 26th March
We will make use of the beautiful garden and outdoor facilities at Willaway to hold a BBQ lunch. This will be catered for at $10 per head ($5.00 for children) and will include meats and salads. Please BYO drinks for the day.
Please give me a call or email if you have any suggestions or think you can help out in any way. I would love to hear from you.
Kerrie
tara@our.net.au
Phone 0364 245148
PO Box 891 Devonport, TAS 7310
Information about the Reunion distributed early in 2005
Willaway is a delightful, quiet little group of apartments, with a lovely garden and covered bbq area. There is a room which the owner will make available to us to so we can display any family items and sit around to have a quiet chat.
Please call Phil Green (phone 0364 252018) to make a booking at Willaway and tell him you are with the Barlow/Cooley group. There are 8 apartments, each with two bedrooms (one has a double bed and the other has two singles), bathroom and fully equipped kitchen. It is rated at 3 1/2 stars but you can read more about it at Willaway. The apartments cost a minimum of $120 per night but you can have up to four people in them, depending on your needs. It is very close to both the town centre and the beach, cafes and a beautiful park. Of course there are alternative accommodation places, caravan parks, bed and breakfasts and motels if you would rather but I really can recommend Willaway.
Ulverstone is located on the coast between Devonport and Burnie. It is a lovely town, easy walking because it is flat, clean river, beach and easily accessible from both Devonport and Wynyard airports. Qantas and Rex airlines both fly into these airports. Launceston is still only 70 minutes away if you prefer to fly Virgin or Jetstar. The Spirit of Tasmania sails into Devonport each day if you were planning on bringing a car.
At this stage I am considering providing a bbq lunch on Sunday at Willaway but believe it is probably easier if people make their own arrangements for lunch and dinner on Saturday. I can provide a list of restaurants which are nearby and will put these on the web page at a later date.
Links to earlier reunions can be found on the right of this page.