A Royston woman has spoken of the ‘scary and exciting’ moment she met her father for the first time after tracking him down in Australia.

Anna Marriage grew up wondering what had happened to her dad Peter Warner after he left England in 1972.

In 2010, after trawling through birth records, and with only a name to go on, she managed to track down his younger brother in Cambridge and turned up unannounced at his door.

The 43-year-old was shocked to find out that, after years thinking she was an only child, she had six half brothers and sisters and a stepmother living Down Under in Albany, Western Australia.

She said: “It was amazing to find out.

“I’d always wanted siblings and so to discover I had six at once was incredible.”

Anna made contact with her sister via Facebook and said she sent her a message along the lines of ‘I’m your older sister from the UK.’

The photographer, who lives in Morton Street, said: “She replied back immediately and said she had made contact with my dad Peter and he was over the moon that I’d found him.”

She kept in regular contact with her new found family, then in June 2010, she arranged to fly out to meet them, which she described as a ‘scary and exciting’ experience.

Thanks to a reunion event named The Big Aussie Reunion organised by Flight Centre UK and Queensland Tourism, Anna was given the opportunity to meet her family once again last week, to coincide with Australia Day.

Anna said: “I desperately wanted to see my family again, five years is a long time. It’s been like we haven’t been apart but it’s been emotional too.”

Anna was treated like a celebrity in Australia and has been in a hot air balloon, surfed, ridden in a limo and been on TV show Good Morning Britain.

She said: “It was lovely to make some memories with my youngest brother and dad in Queensland.

“Staying in the same apartment was brilliant.

“My dad is 70 shortly and I thought it would be a great way to catch up. My brother was very young last time we saw him, and this time as an adult we got on so well.”