3 Marriage and Family

From Darwin I returned home on leave and was then posted to Williamstown NSW. After a short stay there I was attached to Richmond NSW. Whilst at Richmond your Mother & I decided to get married which we did in 1953. We were married in Clifton had the reception at Glebe Hotel in Toowoomba & Honeymoon at Broad Beach Hotel Southport. We returned(???) to Richmond & we shared a house at Campan(???) (suburb of Sydney) with Len and Dot Chennels???. Len was in the Air Force with me at Richmond & we used to come home Wednesday nights & Week-ends. After some time at Richmond I was attached to Mascot (where the Air Port is). This was much better as I was able to come home each night.

Your mother by this time was pregnant with Lynette & things were not working out sharing a house so we decided she should go home to her Parents & I would endeavour to get a posting back to Amberley; which I did.

Mum stayed in Clifton until Lynette was born & then we rented a house at Churchill (Ipswich) for 15/- a week ($1.50). We then moved to Blackswaws Rd in Ipswich for a short time until moving to Saddlers Crossing (Ipswich) where we rented a House for 5 pounds a week ($10). I worked on a Saturday as a Penciller for a Bookmaker which went well until he went broke. Unfortunately I was then posted to Williamstown and again Mum went home to her Parents.

After some time at Williamstown I again was posted back to Amberley. In the mean time Mum had rented a House at Margate Beach (Red Cliffs Q) and I was going home Wednesday nights & Week-ends. I was trying to get a married Quarter and finally got one at the One Mile Estate (Ipswich).

By this time Maryanne had started School in Brisbane and I used to take her home Monday & pick her up on Friday.

We had some good times in Ipswich & quite often we had a BarBQ. Neighbours would come over & bring a steak or whatever. It was always on the spur of the moment.

In 1956 TV came & we used to hire a TV between us & two neighbours. We used to get it on Friday & it would be picked up on Monday & sometimes Tuesday. We soon got tired of people coming in all the time so we bought a TV on Hire Purchase. From memory it was about 1000 pounds ($2000). TV was a novelty & we would watch anything & everything.

During this period in Ipswich we used to see a lot of your mother’s sisters Pat & Maureen & their husbands Laurie & Ken. We had a lot of good friends & life was very pleasant.

During my time at Amberley I was attached to Rathmines (outside Newcastle) to do a Management Course. This was for a period of 6 weeks and as Rathmines is saturated on a lake it was very pleasant. You could sit in the Beer Garden & fish into the lake. We hired a boat for a day out on the lake. Plenty of fish & oysters.