ARCHIE Roach has been a successful singer-songwriter since the 1980s and has many ARIA Awards to his name.

Many people are familiar with his voice and songs, but few would know that Archie's family was originally from Lawrence.

Archie is now writing his memoir and keen to learn more about his Lawrence family history. He travelled to Lawrence to meet with museum staff Roz and Marie to research his family history. A film crew accompanied him to record the events.

The Roach family lived in Lawrence in the 1930s. The museum has photographs of various members of the family, including Archie's father, also Archie, as a young child, and his aunts and uncles.

The collection includes a small display of Aboriginal artefacts and Archie was pleased to provide a good demonstration of the woomera, a spear thrower.

This was Archie's second visit to Lawrence Museum.A few years ago he met with the late Doug Suprain, who told him the story about Archie's grandmother and two other ladies who tried to swim across the Clarence River. It was this story that prompted Archie to write the song Mighty Clarence River.

Upon leaving, Archie presented museum staff with a signed copy of his CD Concert Collection 2012-2018.

In 2015, Archie Roach was honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours list as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to music as a singer-songwriter, guitarist and a prominent supporter of social justice.