There is a song called Long Road Out Of Eden, but for Hopkins family descendants the last weekend in June was the long road back to Eden.
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On a bright, sunny day they rolled down Bellbird Hill and across the border from Victoria, returning like prodigals to a place their parents thought of as Utopia, and that their forebears called home in the last part of the 19th century.
John Hopkins was 20 when he left Co. Sligo in Ireland, settling in Eden and taking a bride who had left England for these wild shores.
His skill as a horseman saw him delivering the district mail, including Ned Kelly as a regular customer.
He thought Ned to be a fine young man, a view undoubtedly coloured by their shared ethnicity.
With wife Ann he opened the Roan Horse Inn, the Commercial Hotel, The Exchange and, in 1880, the Great Southern.
According to obituaries John was a man of sterling honesty and Ann was possessed of a cheery disposition, however this didn’t stop their quirky habit of shutting the doors of their butcher shop when the townsfolk displeased them.
Six descendants joined the one family member who still lives in Eden - Jenny Horton - to share memories and family lore.
They relished retelling the many stories, laughing in all the same places, tears in their eyes remembering those of them now gone.
One cousin, Sr Colleen O’Sullivan, led the family in prayer at the family graves; they gathered for photos at the Roan Horse Inn, and Flora Street where 'Birdie’s house' still stands, and dined in the Eden Fisherman’s Club, site of the family home until 1951.
They parted with promises to stay in touch … and maybe soon they'll travel that long road back to Eden once more.