As the eldest girl, it probably was 10 year old Mary Ellen who had to keep an eye on baby Jane on the journey to Australia on the Darmstadt in 1897. As the family was travelling steerage, conditions on the ship were probably very cramped and all the children must have been very glad when they finally got to Sydney, especially after the long hot trip through the tropics from Colombo to Albany.

Mary Ellen, mostly known as "Polly" to the family, from her habit of often singing "Polly put the kettle on" stayed only six years with the family after their arrival in Brisbane. It seems that Walter wanted her to go out to work to earn some money but instead she married a man 12 years her senior, Walter Gordon, in October 1903. The chief witness was Walter Bailey - either her father or her eldest brother Walter Henry. There is a family story that Mary Ellen ran away from home to get married, but perhaps in the end her father relented and attended the ceremony.

The wedding took place at Newstead according to the rites of Joyful News Mission and this was an independent undenominational church founded in The Valley area in 1895 whose motto was "The Living Church for the Dying World". At one time, the Mission had over 3000 members, as well as their own school, but when its following declined, the remnants of the congregation joined the Wesleyan Church in 1975.

Walter Gordon worked on the tramways for the greater part of his life. He was a signalman, who changed over the points for the trams at The Valley junction box.

About 1920, the Gordons lived at Toombul but had a sort of holiday shack at Cribb Island which at that time was a low lying area surrounded by mangroves but today it is filled in and is part of Brisbane International Airport.

Apparently Walter and Polly used to drive out in their sulky to visit the family at Enoggera and one day the two Walters had a terrible family row. Walter Gordon was told the equivalent of "never darken my doors again" and from then on there was no contact between the two families.

Polly was a tireless worker for the Red Cross and other charities, but having inherited Walter's autocratic ways, always made sure that she would be the one in charge. She was one of the early women drivers in Brisbane and was great friends with a Mrs. O'Brien whose husband was an accountant with Finneys Department Store. They had a Humber car, and Mr. O'Brien did not approve of women drivers but when he was away, Polly and his wife would often take the car out for a drive and they used to disconnect the speedo and fill up the car with petrol, so he would not find out. Mr. O'Brien could not understand why the car hardly ever needed petrol and used to boast about its phenomenally low petrol consumption. He even had it tested to prove his point, but of course the results were quite normal and apparently he never discovered what Polly and his wife had been up to.

W hile Walter was working at The Valley tram junction box, the family lived for a time in a rented house in that suburb.It was here that Polly looked after her step-mother’s youngest child Reuben Sam, until his death in 1921.One day, Walter had severe pains in his abdomen, but he stayed on duty until his shift ended. Not having the money for a taxicab, he walked all the way up a very steep hill to the nearest hospital, but by the time he got there, his appendix had burst and he died from peritonitis in his 66th year on November 1941.

About 1937 the family moved into a very old house they had bought in Union Street Toombul with its front rooms facing right onto the train line to Sandgate and after Walter’s death his widow stayed on there with her unmarried daughter Dolly. Polly worked casually as a cloak room attendant in various places including the local racecourse and they probably lived on Polly's pension.

Like other Bailey relatives, Polly had diabetes and had to give herself a daily insulin injection - as well she had complications due to poor circulation and her leg ulcers never seemed to heal. Towards the end of her life, Polly spent several periods in Brisbane General Hospital being stabilised, but in the end became senile and could not remember her injections, so she was transferred to Goodna Asylum. Her memory went completely and she could not even remember her grandchildren, and she later became bedridden and finally died in July 1961.

Walter and Mary Ellen had 5 children and the first 3 died without issue. Their first child Walter was born in 1904 and he worked as a fireman on Queensland coastal ships. He had married Muriel Chrissie and died about 1960.

Doris "Dolly" was the eldest daughter born in 1907 and she never married. Polly, remembering her childhood in South Africa with servants to do all the housework, did as little of that as possible. It was Dolly, who from an early age, was the family housekeeper, though Polly did lighten her work somewhat by sending all the washing out to the laundry. Dolly had a job as a clothing machinist, sometimes working at home when she was not well enough to go work at the factory. At times she too worked at the local racecourse, sometimes helping out in the cloakroom or making sandwiches and on these occasions, Dolly would bring home all the hambones to make up a big pot of soup. Dolly died in 1975.

The second daughter was Kathleen "Kitty" born in 1909 but she lived only until 1935.

The fourth child was George born in 1911 and he married Dorothy Duncan in 1933. George Gordon died of cancer when he was only 49 years old in 1961, in the same year as his mother, while Dorothy survived him by eight years and she died in 1969. Their first born was another George who arrived in 1934 but he never married and died in 1982. June was born in 1936 and in 1957 married David Young and they have 3 children.

Alison, George and Dorothy's third child was born in 1939 and after World War II ended, her father George built them a house in the suburb of Yeerongpilly. This was a long way from Alison's grandmother, but she used to catch a bus to visit, and Alison usually waited at the bus stop to carry the Napoleon cake Polly always bought for them.

About 1950, Alison's mother was very ill, so she and her sister spent most weekends with their grandmother. They would catch the tram from the local Fire Station at Yeronga to Clayfield terminus and walk to Union Street from there. There were cousins related to her mother living nearby and the sisters spent most of the day playing with them, only sleeping each evening at their grandmother's house. She was a kind and generous grandma, especially delighting Alison's heart with sixpences to buy lollies at the local shop.

In 1964 Alison married Ross Martin in Auckland and went to live there. Ross works for Telecom and they have 2 children. Keitha who was born in 1967, spent a working holiday in England about 1988. There she met an English artist Paul Smith and they came back to New Zealand and were married at Zion Hill Methodist Church in Birkenhead, an Auckland suburb in 1990. They have settled in Auckland near Ross and Alison, whose son Glenn born in 1970 has just finished his Science degree at Otago University.

George and Dorothy's youngest child Carole, was born in 1942 and married Ronald Paulsen in 1959. She and her sister Alison grew up and lived in Brisbane for twenty years and had never heard mention of any relatives. It was only when Carole started researching her family history before she died in 1985 and she got Walter Bailey's death certificate which showed 12 great uncles and great aunts still living that the two sisters had any idea of the size of their grandfather's family and the number of unknown relatives they had.

Ronald and Carole's eldest son Jeffrey was born in 1959 and his brother John in 1963. John's partner is Terry Mihaere from New Zealand and they have a son Teddy born in 1989. The only girl in Carole's family is Aleisha who was born in 1965 and she married David Straughan in Canberra during the Bicentennial Car Rally held in 1988.

The youngest child Walter and Mary Gordon had was Percy Alfred "Alf" born in 1917. While he was working, Alf made many improvements to his parents house at Toombul, paying out of his own pocket for all the materials needed. Alf's first job, at the age of l4, was with Jackson & Sullivan, a firm of Stationers. It was while he was working there that he built up a fabulous stamp collection, taken from the mail at the Stationers and helped by his brother George, who was employed at the Post Office. Unhappily after he enlisted in the Army, his parents put the box in which his collection was stored in a damp place under the house, and Alf was bitterly disappointed to find on his return, that his whole collection was so badly mildewed as to be useless.

Enlisting on l5 January 1941, Alf served as a corporal in the Survey Corps in New Guinea, and he was discharged on 21 December, 1945. Polly was not too pleased when Alf decided to marry Elsie Ahles, a lass of German descent in 1946 and said she would not go to the wedding. At the last moment, however, she changed her mind and in typical Polly fashion, made her entrance to the church, wearing her full length fur coat, just as the couple were about to exchange their vows.

Alf obtained a job as a State stock inspector in the abattoirs in 1946 and in 1949, joined the Commonwealth system.

Elsie had suffered a lot of ill health and by the time Alf retired in 1982 she was an invalid, so they moved to a retirement home at Robertson Park near Sunnybank. After Elsie died in 1989, Alf decided the retirement home was too restricting, so he bought a beach house at Currimundi near Caloundra, where he often has the company of his 2 grandsons in the school holidays.

Alf and Elsie had 2 children - their daughter Pamela born in 1952 and a son Kent born in 1954. Pamela married Robert Biddle in 1974 and he is attached to Australian Embassy staff. From 1985 to 1987 Robert was posted as veterinary attache to the Australian Embassy in Washington USA but he and Pamela are now back in Canberra, where Robert is with Australian Quarantine Inspection Service. Kent married an English girl Juliet Ross-Smith and they used to live in London, where Kent worked as a freelance film editor and Judith was a medical secretary. Kent and Judith and their 2 children have recently returned to Queensland having bought a block of land near Brisbane.

Unless otherwise noted, all the places in the genealogy that follows are in and around Brisbane (Bris) Queensland.

12/[6.4] Mary Ellen( Bailey) b 11 Jan 1887 PMB d 12 July 1961 Bris m 7 Oct 1903 Bris Walter John GORDON b 11 April 1875 Bris d 1 Nov 1941 Bris

All births at Brisbane

[12.4] Family of George William GORDON and Dorothy Walker (Duncan)

All births at Brisbane

[12.5] Family of Percy Alfred GORDON and Elsie (Ahles)

All births at Brisbane

[12.7] Family of June Dorothy (Gordon) and David Clelland YOUNG

All births at Brisbane

[12.8] Family of Alison Mary (Gordon) and Ross Warwick MARTIN

[12.9] Family of Carole Elizabeth (Gordon) and Ronald Walter PAULSEN

All births at Brisbane

[12.10] Family of Pamela Ann (Gordon) and Robert Richard BIDDLE

[12.11] Family of Kent GORDON and Juliet (Ross- Smith)

[12.18] Family of John Rodney PAULSEN and Hira Tangiwai (Mihaere)

[12.19] Family of Aleisha Gai (Paulsen) and David John STRAUGHAN

12/[6.4] Walter John GORDON

Father Walter GORDON bp 7 Oct 1840 Garve Rosshire Scot

Mother Eliza (Bunnett) b 6 Jan 1857 Bris

Alison Martin has further details of this family

[12.4] Dorothy Walker (Duncan)

Father Robert Walker DUNCAN b 7 Feb 1880 Bridge of Dee Aberdeenshire Scot d 21 May 1952 Bris

m 17 Mar 1908 Aberdeen Scot

Mother Eliza (Davidson) b 2 Oct 1884 Ellon Scot d 17 Aug 1965 Bris

Alison Martin has further details of this family and has traced both sides back to 18th century in Scotland

[12.5] Elsie Agnes (Ahles)

Father James Francis AHLES b 1982 Bris Occ Packer

Mother Matilda Agnes(Harris) b 1900 Nudgee

Pamela Biddle has further details about this family

[12.8] Ross Warwick MARTIN

Father Harold Langmuir MARTIN b 11 Sep 1914 Taumaranui NZ

m 23 Nov 1940 Onehunga Auckland

Mother Flora Edna (Ballard) b 5 Nov 1911 Onehunga Auckland NZ

Alison Martin has further details about this family

[12.10] Robert Richard BIDDLE

Father Richard George Henry BIDDLE b 7 May 1915 Sydney NSW

m 23 April 1948 Bris

Mother Loma Ellen (Lynham) b 17 Jan 1924 Townsville

Pamela Biddle has further details about this family

[12.15] Paul SMITH

Father Arthur SMITH b 30 Aug 1939 Liverpool England

Mother Rita (Clarke) b 6 Sep ?? Liverpool