A WORCESTER woman who emigrated to Australia with her family in the 1960s has still managed to maintain an unusual link with her home county.

She still lives near Kempsey - but obviously not the village a few miles to the south of her home city - for she is now an inhabitant of a town in the Australian state of New South Wales.

Fiona Ford, nee Gillies, was born in Timberdine Avenue, Cherry Orchard, Worcester, in 1955.

Her family emigrated to Australia when she was around six years old and has remained in the southern hemisphere ever since.

"The strange thing is that I was born near to Kempsey and now 45 years later I have bought my first home and it is about 20km from another Kempsey," said Mrs Ford.

Mrs Ford says she hopes to return to Worcester and see her birthplace.

"I hope it's as beautiful as my mother says it is," she said.

"I also want to see if Burysgate Cottage in Storridge, near Malvern, is still there.

"I have a photo of it, I guess my mother must have lived there."

Mrs Ford said that although she was young when her family left for far shores she still remembers wintry weather.

"Memories of home are very vague, but I remember the milk bottles on the front doorstep, frozen with the bottle top at least two inches above the bottle," she said.

"I remember my older brother Robin and I threw snowballs at each other over the frozen washing line out in the back garden, and how when visitors came I would sit near the fire with a hanky over my head thinking no one could see me."

Mrs Ford, who has three sons, is married to David, who also emigrated with his family from England.

They now live on a farm with chickens, ducks, parrots and dogs.

"One day we will go back to see where we were both born, I in Worcester and David in Devon," she added.