[1] All information in this chapter is from my own recollections and those of my brothers and sisters. In many instances the original source of the information was my mother, as told to me or to one or other family member.

It is my hope that there will be many more chapters of this story written one day by descendants of those who are mentioned in this book. In the meantime I will bring my brief account of something of the history of the Bonds to a close with a short summary of the lives of my brothers and sisters and their families to this time, but with the hope that one day someone else will rewrite it in greater detail.

After completing Form 4 (Year 10) in 1952, Gerald left school and commenced work at the CBA Bank in Geelong. He gave that up after some years to take up employment in Melbourne as a technician with Burroughs Ltd a multi-national computer firm. He married Joan Haygarth, the sister of a Geelong and Victorian League footballer, at St Mary's Geelong in 1959 and moved to Springvale North. The couple later moved to Mulgrave but in the meantime had three children, Debbie (b Aug 6th. 1959), Rodney (b May 3rd 1961) and David (b July 10th 1964). In 1975 the family moved to Hexham in western Victoria and took over the local hotel. A couple of years later Gerald and Joan divorced with Gerald taking the three children to Ararat where he established a business selling records, tapes etc. Shortly after this Gerald met and subsequently married a local girl, Debbie Osmond (b Dec 31st 1959). The marriage took place on Oct 7th 1978 at the Uniting church in Ararat as Gerald's divorce prevented his remarriage in the Catholic Church.

The couple built a new home on the Port Fairy Rd at Mt Chalambar just south of Ararat where they raised four children Jared (b Jan 25th 1980), Nathan (b Mar 6th,1982) Meagan (b Dec 27th 1983) and Bridie (b Apr 29th 1993). Debbie was received into the Catholic Faith at Easter 1989 and the children were baptised at St Marys Catholic Church in Ararat and attended St Marys Primary School and later the older ones attended Marian College.

Gerald's eldest daughter Debbie was herself married at Ararat in 1980. She and her husband Billy Gibson then moved to Kiewa in north-eastern Victoria where their family grew to include four children:- Emma (b Mar 28th 1983), Luke (b Jan 31st 1985), Matthew (b Mar 4th 1987) and Lara (b July 5th 1989). They were divorced in 1993.

Rodney married Sharon Klemm in Ararat on Nov 21st 1987 and at the time of writing had two children, Chloe and Jack. David married Michelle Square at Warrnambool in Nov 1988 where he continued to live even after she had left him and gone to live in W.A. about twelve months after the marriage. He remarried in 1995 to Debbie Eccles and continued to live Warrnambool.The couple had a daughter, Jordan in 1997 and a son Damian (b 14 Nov 2000).

Jared married Melita King in Perth in March 2006 and Nathan married Rebecca Stevens at SS Peter and Pauls in Geelong West on Nov 15th 2008.

Gerald, Debbie and their youngest three children moved from Ararat to Bannockburn near Geelong on October 17th 1998 and in Nov 2005 the family moved to Furner Ave in Bell Park a suburb of Geelong for a couple of years before yet another move to Herne St, Manifold Heights. Nathan completed his education at St Josephs College and Meagan and Bridie attended Clonard (Brigidine) College.

Maureen worked in the office of the Volum Brewery in Geelong for about twelve months after leaving school, then for a short time at Myers before she married Noel Dempsey at St Mary's Geelong in Feb 1958. The couple moved to Medowie, north of Newcastle in NSW, where Noel obtained employment as a plumber. Two children were born in Newcastle, Stephen (March 8th 1959) and Susan (Aug 11th 1961), before the family returned to Geelong in Feb 1962 and settled eventually at 7 Alkoomi Ave in Hamlyn Heights. The family lived at this address until May 1971 when they shifted to 72 Fairview Ave in Newtown where they continued to live until moving to 5 Coquette St in Geelong West in Dec 1990. The family had grown to total six children by this time with the births of Greg (b August 24th 1964), Lisbeth (Libby) (b August 27th 1966); Justin (b August 11th 1970) and Marisa (b Dec 7th 1972). Following Noel's retirement, Maureen and Noel spent over a year travelling around Australia in their mobile home. In 2002 they sold their house in Geelong and shifted to Lennox Head in NSW.

Stephen married Karyn Marshall on Feb 23rd 1985 in Geelong about six months before taking up a position as a librarian in Maffra (Vic). A daughter, Jessica, was subsequently born on Feb 14th 1990.

Sue married Norman Kirwan in Geelong on Feb 2nd 1991 and settled at Agnes Water, near Gladstone in Queensland. The couple had four children Cassandra (Cassie) (b Jan 16th 1993), Jack (b Sep 14 1994) Meg (b Jan 18th 1997) and Isabella (b May 28th 2001).

Greg married Camille Ryan in Geelong in Feb 1989 and settled in Geelong. Two boys Luke (b Aug 12th 1991) and Joshua (b Jun 27th 1994) followed.

Libby lived and worked in a variety of locations and occupations before settling first at Fremantle (WA) and then Lismore (NSW) where she worked at the local hospital. She later returned to Geelong where she worked as a paramedic in the ambulance service. Her brother Justin also regularly changed address and family members were sometimes unsure of his whereabouts and activities. In 2003 he obtained employment as a teacher of English in China and began to show signs of a more settled existence. He became involved in an export business with a Chinese partner and returned to Australia.

Marisa worked as a teacher in Thailand where she formed a relationship with a Burmese refugee named Htun who was active in developing and implementing a program for the emergency treatment of landmine victims. Eventually in 2003 Marisa, Htun and their son Jaylalay were able to move back to Australia as a family and settled at Bellingen (NSW). Marisa and Htun separated in 2005 and Marissa moved to the Mullimbimby (NSW) area not far from her parents.

After obtaining his Intermediate certificate at St Mary's Technical School, Laurence commenced an apprenticeship with a local electrician. He later transferred to the much larger Plumbing and Electrical contracting firm H E Green Pty Ltd, and eventually rose to the position of manager of the Geelong branch. Later he formed and operated his own electical contracting business. For many years he was a prominent player for the St Marys Football Club in the Geelong Football League, playing over 200 games, being a member of several successful Grand Final teams, winning the Best and Fairest Award and being named in the club's 'Team of the Century'.

Laurie as he was more commonly called, married Karlene Baker at St Peter and Pauls, Geelong West in 1966 and settled at Grovedale where his family grew to include ten children:- Anthony (b April 22nd 1967); Jane(b Oct 4th 1968); Matthew (b Dec 17th 1969); Sarah (b April 21st 1973); Rachael (b July 2nd 1974); Nathan (b Mar 7th 1976); Anna (b April 26th 1978); Luke (b Dec 17th 1979); Lucinda (b Feb 20th 1983) and Miranda (b April 30th 1986).

Jane married Pat Fitzgerald at St Marys Geelong in April 1991 and later gave birth to a son Zachary (b April 25th 1994) and daughters Matilda (b Sep 21st 1995), Jemimah Grace (b 5 Nov 1999) and Oscar Patrick (b 29 Sep 2006), all born in Geelong.

Anthony married Debra Corden at the Parade College chapel in Bundoora in November of the same year (1991) and settled first at Mill Park, later at Eltham then at Greensborough but the marriage ended in divorce a few years later. Anthony then married Jacqueline Ricketts in 2003 and settled in Torquay. A son, Alexander Joseph, was born the following year (b Jul 27th 2004) but Anthony and Jacquie separated not long after that.

Matthew fathered two children with his partner Lisa Fowkes, Jayden (b Apr 23rd 1995) and Joshua (b Apr 17th 1996) before becoming estranged from her and her family. A daughter Ebony was born to his new partner in Jan 2004.

In 1998 Nathan became the father of Jacob Liam with his partner Jasmine Dunn. Nathan and Jasmine were married at Barwon Heads on 18th Mar 2000 and a second child Lilly May was born in February of the following year (b 16th Feb 2001).

Anna married Grant Foot on 12 Nov 2004 and settled at Drysdale near Geelong. A daughter, Kalani Louise was born on 1st Sep 2006 and a son, Jarvis William, on 19th Feb 2009.

In 2000 Laurie, Karlene and the chidren still living at home sold their house in Grovedale and moved temporarily to Jan Juc while before moving into their newly built residence in Glaneuse Ave in Torquay

Catherine completed her secondary education at Sacred Heart College then furthered her studies at Geelong Teachers College. Upon graduation she taught for a year at both Glenthompson and Avoca before returning and settling at East Geelong. She taught at several different schools around Geelong including Laverton PS (where she taught the later Hoddle St mass-murderer Julian Knight), Norlane West PS, Rollins PS and the Geelong Special School. Catherine took a keen interest in horses and frequently entered her own horses in a variety of riding and show events. In 1995 she moved to Teesdale where she had space to keep her horses whilst being relatively close to her place of employment.

I completed fourth form (Yr 10) at St Mary's before transferring to St Josephs College in Newtown in 1965. During that year I made the decision to join the Christian Brothers and as a result completed my Matriculation (Yr 12) at the Brothers' Training College at Bundoora in 1966. Three further years of study followed at Lower Plenty (Novitiate year 1967), Parkville (1968) and Box Hill (1969) before I commenced teaching at Aquinas College in Ringwood in 1970.

I then taught at St Marys West Melbourne (1971-72), St Josephs Abbotsford (1973-5) and St Virgils Hobart (1976) before taking a year of full time study to complete a Science degree at Melbourne University in 1977. I lived at Parkville for that year. The following year I was appointed to St Patricks College Ballarat where I remained for five years.

In 1983 I was appointed as Deputy Principal at St Bernards Essendon and in 1985 I became Principal at St Bernards - a position I held until the end of 1988.

At the end of that year I travelled to New York to attend a Conference and following that was able to take the opportunity to travel through Europe before returning to take up an appointment as Principal of Parade College in Bundoora in 1989. Whilst in Europe I visited many of the places in England and Ireland associated with this Family history.

During my six years at Parade I twice had the opportunity to travel overseas. Firstly I won a raffle the prize for which was a trip on the trans-Siberian railway. Hence after six days in Japan I journeyed across Russia from Khabarovsk to Moscow before continuing on to Berlin and home. Secondly in 1994 after Parade College had established a sister school relationship with Takada High School in Tsu City Japan I visited Tsu in order to formalise the agreement. At the conclusion of my time at Parade I was given the opportunity of 15 months further study in Israel and Ireland during which time I conducted further research and visited more places associated with this family history in Ireland, England and Scotland, as well as travelling extensively in Eastern and Western Europe and Africa.

On my return to Australia in mid-1996 I taught for a few months at Guilford Young College in Hobart before accepting an appointment as Deputy Principal of Chanel College in Geelong while the future of the school was determined. After many winding turns in my life's journey and an absence of 30 years it was good to come 'home' to Geelong in January of 1997.

Following the closure of Chanel at the end of 1999 I moved to Lower Plenty where I assumed the role of facilitator of the Young Adult Community and took on responsibility for a number of other projects for the Christian Brothers, principally the administration of the Edmund Rice Volunteer Scheme and the Province Justice Desk which promoted awareness of Justice issues across the communities and schools. At the start of 2004 I moved to the Brothers' Community at Rosanna in the north eastern suburbs of Melbourne and in 2005 I moved again to Sunshine where I was part of the community formed to support an outreach to refugee families in the area through an after-school homework tuition program.

I had the opportunity for further travel when I participated in an International Social justice Conference organized by the Christian Brothers in Kolkata, India in 2005 and again when I participated in the 'karibu' cross-cultural immersion program held in Nairobi, Kenya in June 2006.

In Sep 2007 I was invited to be part of the community formed around the work of Edmund Rice International in lobbying for human rights, particularly the rights of children in regard to education, through the Human Rights Council at the United Nations. Accordingly I moved to Geneva in Switzerland in late October of that year and so began yet another different phase of my life.

More information about my life and work can be found in the About Me section of this website.

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