View source for Stephenson Dr John A and Anne

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John and Anne Stephenson, currently [2017] living in Gymea in Sutherland Shire, south of Sydney, lived in Alexander Avenue, Evanston for 1 year and then in 7 – 9 Blanch St, Gawler East from 1977 to 1983.
	
John was in private medical practice; first in Gawler and Virginia with Dr. Glastonbury, and then in Smithfield with Dr. Peter Ledwoch and Dr. Farooq Qureshi.

Anne worked part-time as a Social Worker at the Lyell McEwin Hospital.

All of their three of our sons were born in SA between 1976 and 1983.

John and Anne enjoyed a busy social life; John especially through the Gawler Apex Club, and other local community circles. John really enjoyed organising the Gawler Apex Regional Wine-tasting night in the late 70’s with Apexian Brian Thom; firstly at the Abbey and then in the Gawler Institute. These nights were very well supported by the 20 or so Barossa Valley Wineries, and many patrons enjoyed the ambience created; enhanced with especially created Gawler Apex wine glasses.

John and Anne returned to Sydney 1984 because of family commitments.

They have retained strong links to friends in Gawler, and John always had a strong leaning towards research, and Gawler’s history. The partly completed cemetery database grew out of a quest to find out whether Blanche Street finished with an ‘e’ as there were two council street signs, one named Blanch and the other Blanche. 
This became generalised as John realized that even the Gawler Council didn’t seem    to have a complete understanding  as to why Gawler streets are named as they are. 
This then led John to look for those names in the cemeteries around Gawler, mainly

o	The Old Gawler Cemetery now Pioneer Park<br />

o	Willaston Cemetery<br />

o	St George’s Anglican Cemetery<br />

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John’s collection of annotated burials at Willaston Cemetery, has become a passion. There are many interesting stories surrounding the names on headstones. John wants to work on the complete Burial Register, not just those who have got a headstone; to understand and record more fully the history of Gawler.
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[https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4EjkA7CXbhAWGc0TTVJUktlMFk/view?usp=sharing Click here] to see the 500 foolscap pages of information relating to all Willaston Cemetery interments since 1866 WHERE THERE IS A HEADSTONE. This substantial project evolved over 18 months of work by Dr John Stephenson [ex-Doctor in Gawler 1977 to 1983] and now John lives in Gymea NSW. We thank John for his continuing passion to highlight Gawler's history.


John has been actively involved in the Katoke Trust for Overseas Aid since its inception in 1998. The Trust is a community based Australian organisation dedicated to starting development programs around Katoke, a village in the remote north-western area of Tanzania in East Africa. 
"Our main interests are in the improving the standards of education around Katoke, as well as medical work, setting up a community clinic with work in HIV-AIDS and malaria prevention our focus. We have also been involved in educating the local farmers in agricultural practice, including the introduction of new crops, such as vanilla, to supplement their cash crop of coffee". 
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"Our community is walking with the community there. You are welcome to see our progress at [http://www.katoke.com.au www.katoke.com.au] "

[https://www.flickr.com/photos/gawler_history/albums/72157679480100795 Click here to see more photos].
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