My dad died this year (2008) just a week or so after his 84th birthday. He was the mayor of Peterborough in South Australia during my teen years in the 1970s.

Many people in the local community of Peterborough knew my parents, and my mum (Carmel Dowd) is especially remembered with fondness. Her community work in Peterborough extended from organising domestic home care services to church flower arrangements. Few people knew that my mother in her earlier years was indeed a model. She regularly paraded the new fashions in John Martins Department store in Adelaide. In earlier times my mother had aspired to be a nun, but it was not to be and she gave birth to eight wonderful offspring who are still alive to this day. My mum was so photogenic that her wedding images were posted at numerous railway station billboards after world war two. My mum died in 1979, and my dad died in 2008, but at least I know a lot about who they were, and how important South Australia was in the identity that I still have, even though I live now interstate.

I will always remember the wonderful mix of kindness that my parents extended to people in the local community of Peterborough, alongside international and global perspectives that always encouraged us to be tolerant of different cultural groups.

Not a year passed in my teens without the wonderful surprises of a new Rotary Exchange student staying in our house. This was a blessing for me growing up in regional Australia and I hope that future generations can continue to have such experiences. They no doubt bring understanding and exploration of different cultures.

Photo: Anney and Cate Dowd with their dad, near Coffin Bay, South Australia, 1978

Woods, Anita Petersburg to Peterborough:a journey from 1875 to 1986 [Peterborough] S. Aust.: Peterborough and Local Districts History Club, 1986

District Council of Peterborough