After 150 years away, a family returns to the mill they helped build

Now, on the 150th anniversary of the mill that Mr Johnstone and Mr Bulman built together in Launceston, his descendants have returned to the facility that changed their history.

A group of 12 Johnstones - many of whom had worked at the site from the 1950s onwards - visited Waverley Woolen Mills earlier this month to tour the place which "meant so much" to them.

The family were inspired to take the tour - some only having recently discovered their connection to the original Johnstone's through ancestry testing - by an article in The Examiner on the mill's 150th celebrations.

Waverley Mill - the country's oldest continually operating textile production facility of its kind - has had a rich history since its completion in 1874: it weaved products for the Australian Army and Qantas, and at one time its production accounted for 80 percent of the blanket market in the country.

"Look at how proud we all are to be here," said Barbara Rees, one of the organisers of the family meeting and Mr Johnstone's great great great granddaughter.

"The history that we played a role in, that takes your breath away. All these connections we didn't know we had."

While Mr Bulman, a Scottish farmer, established the mill, the Johnstone's role in the foundation is certainly as important.

In his book The Outcome of Enterprise, Tasmanian author and historian Julian Burgess - who worked at The Examiner for 45 years - wrote that the Johnstones supplied a great deal of the mill's machinery.

The Johnstones lived on site for a time at the mill, being housed in cottages near the site, for almost a decade before gradually withdrawing from the Waverley partnership, though members of the family continued to work there for years after.

One of those family members was Graham Johnstone, affectionately known as 'Ginger', who worked at the factory from the 1950s onwards.

Ginger is survived by his wife, Shirley Johnstone, who worked at Waverley in 1957 where the pair first met. Ms Johnstone was present at the family's tour in early May.

"I could tell you exactly where I worked all those years ago," Ms Johnstone said, reminiscing as she walked through the mill.

After the tour, the family visited the Waverley Mills 150+ exhibition at Design Tasmania, a commemorative show of the founding of the factory.

"Daniel's whole life was packed up and brought over here, and we're here because of it," Ms Rees said.

"There's all this art, this whole suburb [of Waverley]; we were a part of that. Now that's a great story."