Fred, as he was generally known, met Mary Ann McNally and they married in 1886, with a family of nine children to follow.

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“In his twenties he had a sawmill and logged cedar on the NSW north coast, also building boats to transport timber down the coast to Sydney,” Fred’s great-grandson Terry Bleakley told News Of The Area.

One of his boats, a top-sail schooner named the ‘Violet Doepel’ after his eldest daughter, sank in heavy weather in 1905 off Mylestom beach, then known as North Beach.

He also built the schooners ‘Surprise’ in 1884 and the ‘Bellinger’ in 1886 plus two steamships, the ‘SS Bellinger’ and the ‘SS Doepel’, as well as several river droghers, but his best-known ship was the ‘Alma Doepel’, which is currently being restored in Melbourne.

Last weekend, on the 120th anniversary of the launching of his renowned ‘Alma Doepel’, more than 200 descendants of Fred and Mary Ann gathered in Mylestom for a family reunion.

“We decided that would be an appropriate date for the reunion,” explained Cathy, one of the organisers, “but perhaps the main reason was to get together as a family for something other than funerals.

“The last official reunion was 45 years ago in 1978, so it was great to meet and renew acquaintances after so long.”

The reunion was more than two years in the planning, and attracted family members from Darwin, Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and dozens of places in between.

Doepel descendants started arriving mid-week and on Friday morning about 160 people joined the informal get-together in Alma Doepel Park.

Saturday night saw more than 200 people at the Mylestom Hall for dinner and a number of exciting highlights, starting with the launch of Mark Fiess’s new book, ‘The Bellinger and Frederik Doepel’.

Then, in a perceptive speech that resonated with the audience, Mark Doepel emphasised the legacy of family, place and belonging.

David Doepel’s display of beautiful handmade models of the ‘Alma Doepel’ drew plenty of attention and offered insights into the reasons this ship was so special.

And what’s a family reunion without a slideshow?

Matthew Doepel compiled a collection of photos spanning the years that prompted both groans and laughter while giving younger family members a glimpse of the simple yet idyllic holiday fun previous generations experienced along the beach.

The party continued on Sunday when local Mylestom residents were invited to join the descendants of Frederik Doepel at North Beach Recreation and Bowling Club to view some historical footage of the town and surrounding areas as they were between 1949 and 1980.

And there was more to come on Tuesday as they got together at Cahill’s Wharf at Bellingen to mark the anniversary of the launching of the ‘Alma Doepel’.

The family thanks Norm Boreham from Alma Doepel Appreciation Society for his attendance and also Boambee Bay Resort for the loan of two large canvases of the ‘Alma Doepel’.

Ted Bleakley, son of early pioneer Violet Doepel, was a keen recorder of his family holidays and his collection was passed on to his eldest son Terry, who digitised the collection and edited the films to 80 minutes of footage of North Beach and surrounding areas as they were all those years ago: bare dunes, various versions of the swimming baths, the old tennis court, grass-skiing at Repton and much more.

Older family members, many now grandparents, reminisced about their experiences “packed into a station wagon for the two-day trip north to Grandma’s bungalow”.

They recalled faces covered in pink zinc, building cubbies in the sandhills and paddling on logs.

They laughed at memories of mosquito nets draped over old cast-iron beds and snakeskins hanging from the roof, and there was always someone to play with – brothers and sisters, and cousins galore.

“Ted Bleakley and his brother Bob captured parts of their early life on film and continued to film their own families,” says Terry.

“Their legacy is not just the invaluable record of family life, but a reminder to us of our amazing good fortune in having wonderful parents and a joyful upbringing.”

By Susan KONTIC