Soul Searching: Irene Anderson-Thaiday’s reunion story
My name is Irene Anderson. I married Mick Thaiday on 19 May 1979 on Manburra, Palm Island. I was born on Manburra Country, Palm Island on 23 January 1951 to my parents Tommy (1901 – 1957) and Greta Anderson (nee Bardon) (1914 – 1955).
Dad Tommy was born on Nywaigi Country in 1901 at Victoria Station, Herbert River, his mother’s name was Emily Anderson (Nywaigi) and his father was Thomas Anderson (Snr) (Scotland). My dad was married twice; his first wife was Betsy Cuthill (Mamu Tribe) from Innisfail. Together they had five children:
Alexander (aka Jock), Thomas (Jnr), Myrtle, Francis and Ellen Betsy. Betsy Cuthill passed away on Palm Island on 22 January 1934.
After dad’s wife passed away, he married my mum Greta and they had nine children together: Iris, David, Martha, June Ellen, Mel Alan, Dulcie, Frankie, Ruth and me, Irene. There is only Iris and I left in the family.
I was only five years old when my Mother Greta died in October, 1955. My Father Tommy died in September of 1957. He was 56 years old. After my Parents died, My Sister Ruth, Brother Alan and I were then placed in the Palm Island Dormitory. I am not sure how long we were locked up in the Dormitory for, until after a while we were then adopted out by Neville Bonner and his first wife Mona. I don’t remember much about them because I was only small.
“Our brother Alan was sick and sent to Townsville hospital in 1959 and later to Brisbane Hospital where he died at the age of 16 years. No one told us what happened to him until we were in our teens.”
We didn’t see our older sisters and brothers until the 1970s when I was about 17 or 18 and Ruth was in her early 20s. When I finished high school in Ipswich, I was sent out to Quilpie to work on a sheep station called Kyabra doing domestic work and looking after three small children.
I was only about 16-17 years old then and I stayed there for 18 months. I was getting homesick so I went back to Ipswich where Ruth was still living with the Bonners. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs (as it was called back then) sent me out there to work 100 km from Quilpie. I travelled on the train at 16 years old and I was scared travelling alone but there were some people on the train who looked after me.
After going back to Townsville, I finally met my older sisters Myrtle and Ellen and brother Frances. They all cried when they saw me after leaving Palm Island when I was 9 years old and coming home at 20 years old.
While I was staying with my sisters, a white man was walking up the front stairs and I said to Myrtle, there’s a white man coming upstairs and she told me “that’s your older brother Jock”.
These siblings were from my dad’s first marriage. His father, my grandfather, was a Scotchman. After leaving Townsville, I went to Darwin while I met my other sisters, Iris, Martha and Dulcie whom I stayed with for a couple of months getting to know them.
I have been searching for my families for years after I settled down with my own family. I got a lot of information from the Community and Personal History here in Brisbane and also from Link-Up (Qld), who I joined a few years ago, when I went for morning tea.
I’m very grateful for Link-Up (Qld)’s help in finding out info on my mum, Greta Anderson/Bardon. A couple of the support staff took me and my daughter Melisa on a trip up north to Ravenshoe and Mt. Garnet in April to meet some family from Mum’s sister Laura’s side of the family.
We also visited the cemetery in Mt. Garnet looking for my nieces’ graves but they were hard to find because they were unmarked and no names on the graves even though we had the plot numbers.
We also made a trip out to Yarrabah to hopefully meet up with families there as well. It was an enjoyable trip and I would like to thank Kerry and Christine and Link-Up (Qld) for doing this for me and my family.
There are still a lot of families up north who we haven’t met yet, but we’ll get up there one day to find them.
Irene Thaiday
Published July 2026.