Reunion

5th worldwide Enneking Family Reunion 2002
22.3.2002 to 25.3. 2002

Enneking family goes to Australia for reunion
Newspaper-response to the
6th worldwide Enneking-Reunionin Australia Germany USA

The motto of the event

" Who is not willing to have a past, will not have a future".

Enneking Family tree from 1659

The special event was
our 20 years anniversary in Australia.
It is really true, we are now farming at Greenpatch, Port Lincoln, for so long. We are the 2nd longest staying resident of Greenpatch

Dr. Otto, Helga and Arnd Enneking at Mc Kechnie Springs were organising the 6^th Worldwide Enneking Reunion on the farm at Greenpatch. From the 22^nd of March to the 25^th of March. 50 Enneking family members from Germany, USA and Holland were guests of the Ennekings for 3 days in Port Lincoln.

Hospitality is great in the Enneking family, not only with the Australian Ennekings. At the past reunions they all showed what they understand under hospitality. This meeting is the 6^th Worldwide Enneking Reunion. The first was in Melrose Minnesota 1987. 1831 the first Ennekings migrated to America (Ohio)The biggest one with 1000 participants was in Damme, Germany1991, the origin where all the Ennekings come from. The Enneking database holds 4000 Ennekings.

This year Port Lincoln was the place to come together. The Ennekings from overseas arrived Friday, 22.3. 2002 late afternoon and were accommodated in a Lincoln Hotel in the new marina.. After a short rest they were welcomed at 6 pm by the Australian Ennekings, guided to the farm Mc Kechnie Springs and entertained on the Enneking farm and around Port Lincoln for 3 days as their guests.

The Motto which they choose for this great event is from Wilhelm von Humboldt ( famous German poet)
" Who is not willing to have a past, will not have a future".

. Dinner is served

The 1^st night they enjoyed at Mc Kechnie Springs a welcome champagne and a Sea food buffet with local Port Lincoln products, including, lobster, prawns, snapper, tuna, squid and a variety of salads and plenty of beer and wine. There was a lot of talking as well because the Ennekings, Otto, Helga, Arnd and Uta, attended the worldwide reunion in Ohio, USA 1989 and Germany 1991.

The other day they visited the sea horse farm, the harbour with the grain silos, an abalone farm and Kallinyalla nursery with a demonstration of Austalian flora and lunch in the garden restaurant.

They purchased an Eucalyptus tree for planting on the farm at Mc Kechnie Springs as a remembrance on the special event.

The Ennekings planted during the last 20 years of their stay at Mc Kechnie Springs 15000 trees by hand, watered them first by buckets and then by drippers and converted the run down and bar farm into a park like environment. Helga collected around 2000 old tires at Port Lincoln tyre companies , loaded them and carried them home in batches of 28 on her ute, each week she was in town for shopping. Each year she moved them from one fenced off confinement on the farm to a new one together with the watering pipes to get her tree program going. She had around 2 km of water pipes to move every year and install them at a different place with connections to the water troughs. Later they started seeding the trees to beautify the farm, control salinity and provide shelter for the animals. The three 10 year old Tagasaste plantations are the living hay stake for the cattle and sheep.
They are very happy about their achievement and showed it proudly to their family.

Some of the family took a harbor cruise on Saturday afternoon, some went swimming and some golfing. For the evening an Australian BBQ was prepared by Helga, her daughter Marita Pille from Albury and her helpers.

Sunday the Ennekings attended the Catholic Church, St. Mary of the Angels for thanksgiving. Here the German Ennekings wanted to present the Enneking Family tree tracing back to 1659, but because of Passion Sunday it did not fit in the ceremony, so they brought it over to the farm on Friday together with an American and Dutch flag. The family is older but during the 30 years war from 1618 to 1648 most of the churches in Germany were destroyed and with them the records for baptism.Some German hymns were heard, because they all like singing. Brunch was at Mc Kechnie Springs with afternoon coffee, tea and cake.

After this they enjoyed a guided farm tour with shearing, sheep demonstrations, cattle feeding and a bush walk

At 7.30 pm the last dinner commenced as a candle light dinner in the traditional German manner. At midnight a last farewell drink ended this special event.

The next morning they followed up their big Australian and New Zealand bus trip of 4 weeks. It started in Melbourne a week before arrival in Port Lincoln and will go via Coober Pedy, Ayers Rock, Alice Springs, to Cairns by plane to Sydney. After spending a few days in Sydney, visiting the "ballet of the 40^th"in the opera house they will fly to New Zealand for another week and then they fly back to their homelands.

You will find some interesting details about our history in the addresses below.

http://home.t-online.de/home/ww.honkomp/iowa-egr.htm

http://home.t-online.de/home/ww.honkomp/homepage.htm#links

Mc Kechnie Springs Farm Stay, 1905 Mc Farlane Road, Port Lincoln SA 5607, Tel/Fax 08 86845057.