Wishing you both an amazing birthday as you celebrate with family and friends in Melbourne with guests from Sydney, Melbourne, Chewton, and even New York!

See the invitation…

Hope you get lots of good wishes and great presents!

Here’s the Menu to get your tastebuds going!

…and here is the link to some photos!

Love from us all XXXXX

Happy New Year from all of us to all of you…

On February 28, 2009, Brian turned 80, so we thought that was a great reason for an international family reunion of sorts! Friends and family were invited to celebrate at a special lunch at the Castlemaine Art Gallery and, after lunch and speeches, he officially “launched” this site.

Daddy at his birthday lunch

Guests travelled from across Australia and from the United States and Europe to join the lunch celebrations (click for menu!), and for some time afterwards stayed around to consume copious quantities of great Australian reds and whites, massive amounts of fresh seafood and enjoyed lots of chats, BBQs galore and played lots of games of Scrabble.

Speaking of Scrabble, Brian’s birthday cake (above) and card reflected the love and high regard in which he is held (here’s the solution) and his fondness and aptitude for the wordy puzzle.

For a peek at some of the highlights of the birthday lunch, we prepared an image gallery, including a short video of Brian’s speech! Click here to view…

(Click on the images then use the magnifying glass for close-ups!)

ON February 28, 2009, Brian Walsh turned 80. Friends and family celebrated at a special lunch at the Castlemaine Art Gallery in central Victoria. As a special treat (and BIG surprise), he officially “launched” this website after lunch.

Guests travelled from across Australia and from the United States and Europe to join the celebrations, drank copious quantities of great Australian reds and whites, ate massive amounts of fresh seafood, enjoyed BBQs galore and played lots of games of Scrabble.

Speaking of Scrabble, Brian’s birthday cake reflected the love and high regard in which he is held – and his fondness and aptitude for the wordy puzzle. Here’s the design, so see if you can work out the greeting. (Here’s the solution!)

For a peek at some of the highlights captured on film of Brian’s adventures and experiences over the last 80 years, we planned to have image CDs available on request (there’s nothing worse than having a plethora of other people’s pictures foisted upon one!) We will also post some photos of the birthday lunch etc in late March.

Visit Brian’s Page for his reminiscences, ditties, thoughts and a bit of family history…and for someone who has “never really bothered with computers”, we may still convince him to author a blog every now and then. Well, we can try.

Cheers! Brian enjoys an Australian red from the Chewton cellar, June 2007. Photo by Greg Walsh

Brian backpacking in Ireland c.1955