IN 1966, Ken and Brenda McDonald packed up their family and headed for Central Australia to work at the Presbyterian Ernabella Mission.
With them were their children, Beth, aged 4, and Gordon, 2.
More than 60 years later, a former Ernabella child, Kevin Heffernan, now living in Perth, began wondering what had happened to “Ken McDonald, the Ernabella mechanic”.
Mr Heffernan was born at Ernabella to Malpiya and David. His mother worked in the McDonald household, helping Brenda with the children and household duties.
He remembered growing up alongside the McDonald children and being a good friend of Gordon’s.
Among his childhood memories were the family’s donkey, a kangaroo and their “Lassie” dog, a Scotch Collie.
About a month ago, Kevin was feeling nostalgic and decided he wanted to find Ken.
He contacted Rev Dean Whittaker, who works with Aboriginal Congress in Adelaide and is also a Uniting Church minister.
Dean knew Mike and Rosemary Last, who had also been staff at Ernabella around the same time.
The couple remembered the McDonalds and knew that they had eventually moved to Gloucester about 30 years earlier. However, they’d lost contact more than 20 years ago.
Rev Whittaker put a request on Facebook, hoping someone might know where the family was.
It was seen by Vonda Last, Mike and Rosemary’s daughter-in-law.
Vonda searched Trove, the National Library of Australia’s digital newspaper archive, and discovered articles about the McDonalds published in the Gloucester News Of The Area on 5 November, 2025 and 21 January, 2026.
She passed the information to the Lasts.
The old newspaper stories revealed that the McDonalds were still living in Gloucester.
The couple phoned the number they had been given years earlier and were delighted to make contact again.
The phone number was then passed back to Rev Whittaker, who gave it to Kevin Heffernan in Perth.
He wasted no time ringing the McDonalds, reconnecting after six decades.
Now, he’s hoping to recapture more memories of those early days at Ernabella, asking the McDonalds to share photographs of the family and their lives there.
What began as a question about “whatever happened to the Ernabella mechanic?” has become a remarkable journey connecting people, memories and two families across Australia — and across 60 years.
By Kim TEOH
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