AFTER FORTY YEARS

Taranaki Daily News, 15 August 1933, Page 9

AFTER FORTY YEARS

MAN’S LUCKY ACCIDENT. REUNITED WITH BROTHERS. When Roderick Gillies, aged 65, of the Government relief camp at Wandilo, South Australia, recovers from a fractured leg, which he sustained recently, he will travel by sedan car to comfort. His accident was the means of reuniting him with two brothers who had heard no word of him for 36 years and believed him dead. Mr. Gillies left his home at Terang nearly 40 years ago when the Coolgardie gold rush occurred and the West quickly swallowed him. Efforts to locate him when his father died 12 months after his departure failed and years afterwards word reached his brothers that he was dead. The two brothers, Alec and Norremaining members of the family, chanced to pick up at Maryborough, Victoria, a newspaper published at Mount Gambier, South Australia, and there saw the name Roderick Gillies. Scarcely daring to hope it could be their long-lost brother, they telephoned the matron of the Mount Gambier Hospital, who established Roderick’s identity beyond question. The two brothers, one of them nearly 70, left Maryborough by. car. early next morning. After a 270-mile journey the reunion took place in the public ward at the hospital the same evening. Roderick Gillies had believed both his brothers dead. When seen’ at the hospital, Roderick was supremely happy. He said that after having spent many years in all parts of Western Australia, he had returned to Adelaide eight years ago and was unable to find any trace of his family. Finally he was compelled to join the relief camp. It was due entirely to his accident that he had been found by his brothers. As soon as his leg had mended, his brothers, who were now wealthy men, would send a car for him and he would join them in Victoria. Mr. Gillies was struck by a falling tree in dense scrub at Wandilo and was exposed to, the weather for several hours before he could be rescued. He was carried by relays of stretcher-bearers through dense scrub until a car could be used, and several hours later was admitted to hospital.