ON THE Easter weekend, Kootingal will be inundated once again by the Cooks and the Middletons – for their sixth family reunion.
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The Cooks didn’t come from Kooty – they’re Sydneysiders – but the Tamworth region was chosen for its geographical location, halfway between Brisbane and Sydney.
Reunion organiser Tuppy Gorlick said in 1991 she’d just attended a large family funeral in Sydney, where most of the family then lived.
“I was sick of going to all these big gatherings for something sad, so I thought I’d bring the family together for a happy reason,” Mrs Gorlick said.
When she started, she said, she had no idea how, when or where, so she took out her map and found Bendemeer, which was ideally placed so the families in Queensland and NSW had about the same distance to travel.
“Since then, people have moved further afield and this year we have family coming from as far north as Townsville and as far south as Adelaide,” Mrs Gorlick said.
That first reunion at Bendemeer was so enjoyable, they decided to do it all again in five years’ time, but to make it easier to remember, they opted for the zero- and five-year increments, so number two was in 1995, also at Bendemeer.
“Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough accommodation in Bendemeer to house everybody, so we moved to the bottom of the range to Kootingal, which houses just about everybody,” she said.
This year their home base is the Kootingal caravan park, with most booked in to the park and others in the local hotel and motel.
The families all aim to arrive by Good Friday, when they settle in and set up camp for the weekend.
“We’ve got 164 booked in for dinner at the hotel on the Saturday night ... and that’s not counting babies, and there’ll be a few of them,” Mrs Gorlick said.
During the day there will be “state-of-origin” playoffs of touch footy and a new event for this year, a state-of-origin tug of war.
“When we held that first reunion in Bendemeer, my grandparents had 11 children and 10 of those original siblings were there,” Mrs Gorlick said.
“Now we’ve only got four left, one of whom, my aunty Beryl Wright, is the matriarch. She’s 92.”
Mrs Gorlick, who lives with her husband Barry on Fraser Island, joins other family members in Hervey Bay, leave there today, stay overnight on the way and arrive at Kooty tomorrow for the happiest of reasons – getting the family together at Easter.
