Anne and Dave's Story

Anne and Dave first met in 1990 when he was visiting his father Frank and stepmother Irene who had recently arrived from England to live at Lake Cathie, NSW. They continued to carry out their separate lives, probably meeting once every second year for the next decade, until Frank died in 2001 followed by Anne’s husband Iver in 2003. 

After Frank died, Irene found it hard to live on her own although she had many friends. By 2005 she was withdrawing from the community, despite efforts to support her. This led to many phone calls from Anne to Dave who was often busy or out of the country! 

In 2004, Dave walked the Greenstone-Routeburn track in New Zealand with his daughter Alex, and later mentioned to Anne that he would like to return – at the same time Anne had been trying to persuade her brother to accompany her to New Zealand to no avail. 

So, late in 2007, Anne said that perhaps she could try the trek with Dave. Before Anne knew what had happened Dave had booked the walk for February 2008! This led to a lot more meetings, buying boots and climbing hills to get fit, culminating in a wonderful five-day walk starting and finishing in Queenstown. 

This trip was very important to Anne and Dave in many ways with Anne fulfilling her ambition to walk in New Zealand and their relationship rapid development. Special times included seeing the “Basket of Dreams” sculpture above Queenstown and the farewell dinner at Annie’s Bar in Christchurch. 

The holiday was extended to explore Doubtful Sound, driving along the West Coast to Greytown then over the Southern Alps to Christchurch and finally flying back to Australia. This delayed Irene’s move to Queens Lake and the clearing of her house. 

Dave’s niece and daughter arrived from England in April 2008 and after a brief stay in the Camden Haven, Dave returned to his home in Brisbane with “the 3 girls” via the Warrumbungles and Mount Kaputar National Parks. Anne returned to Kendall while Dave, together with niece and daughter, enjoyed (?) a very wet trip exploring North Stradbrook Island and staying at the Tangalooma Resort (where thankfully the rain had stopped). 

At this stage Dave decided he needed to move to be closer to Irene and Anne. He moved into a townhouse in Port Macquarie which he kept for two years. It proved a godsend acting as a town base for various activities, although later in the year he joined Anne in Kendall. 

Efforts to persuade Irene to move into a retirement village had fallen on very deaf ears until late in 2007 when surprisingly she agreed to move to Queens Lake Retirement Village (Laurieton, NSW) where she was eventually established in April 2008. This was really rather too late for her rapidly declining welfare and Anne and Dave were left with the enormous task of emptying the old home before its sale. 

In July 2008, Anne and Dave took her brother Peter and his wife on a trip to Queensland, Emerald, Gladstone and Heron Island, returning via Caloundra and Beaudesert, having briefly camped in the bitterly-cold Carnarvon Gorge National Park. At the end of 2008 Dave needed colon surgery which required some recuperation and much TLC at the Kendall house. 

In September 2008, Irene had a fall and broke her hip just outside the Queens Lake property. She was admitted to hospital in Port Macquarie, never to return to the Retirement Village. Several further moves ensued to aid in Irene’s rehabilitation. Her increasing dementia forced her into a Nursing Home while her faculties gradually diminished for another five years. This was a very stressful time for everyone but they were able to get help from a small band of wonderful friends to keep Irene interested and even taught her how to paint. 

In March 2009,  Anne and Dave decided to have a quiet time in Margaret River exploring the area, wineries and craft workshops. The original plan was to enable Dave to recover from his surgery but it turned out that his recuperation was so well advanced that he was able to fully enjoy their first visit to this great part of Australia. 

Later in the year, Anne and Dave flew to the UK to reconnect with Dave’s siblings and niece, other members of the family and various friends. Anne also caught up with a long-lost cousin in Scotland, and visited some old friends. It was a busy time which must have contributed to Anne suffering what proved to be a TIA in November and a stroke in February 2010 necessitating two spells in hospital. 

Anne had put her house in Kendall on the market in August 2009 finally receiving information on its sale while on holiday in Broome in September a year later. In June 2010, Anne and Dave had joined the Kimberley Quest II for a cruise exploring the Kimberley coast from Mitchell Plateau to Broome. The Kimberley is a fascinating part of the world and we have returned several times. The cruise was followed by a week in Broome joined by Dave’s daughter Alex, her husband Steve and son Jamie, now an active two-year-old. 

Anne had committed herself to writing a history of the choir to which she and Irene had been members since 1990. Thanks to Dave’s considerable experience and input, the history was finally launched in 2011, after a long development period fraught with changing committees. (See below for a link to an online version of "Our Story".)

After the Kendall house was sold in October 2010, a quick investigation of the Port Macquarie property market resulted in Anne and Dave purchasing a villa together, enabling them to move from Dave’s rented property by December. 

Prior to moving they completed a pre-planned exploratory bus tour round Tasmania introducing Anne to Dave’s first haunts and work after he arrived in Tasmania in 1966. A few more trips followed – to Lake Eyre, the Barrier Reef, the Tarkine in Tasmania, the Great Ocean Road, Alaska Canada Cape Cod and Hawaii, and finally New Zealand were enjoyed before moving again! 

The villa in Port Macquarie had not been well cared for over the previous few years and required considerable replacements and improvements – once those had gradually taken place it was discovered that the monthly drives to Sydney, to help Dave’s daughter Alex with her young family, became too far on a regular basis – resulting in another move nearer to Sydney being needed in June 2013. 

One return trip to Port Macquarie in April resulted in a diversion to Tea Gardens and Hawks Nest, north of Newcastle, an old haunt of Dave's but new to Anne. A quick investigation of a newish retirement village in the area inspired  Anne and Dave to consider retirement villages as a possible solution to their travel problem. 

After a month or two of research into retirement villages between Sydney and Port Macquarie, the investigation concentrated on the NSW Central Coast. Anne and Dave decided to buy a villa at Glengara Retirement Village at Tumbi Umbi. There were very few villas for sale at the time, so there was a nail-biting period when the commitment to purchase the villa at Glengara was finalised before starting to sell the Port Macquarie property! All came out well and the move to the Central Coast was completed in July 2013. 

Since then, Anne and Dave have never looked back, enjoying final retirement and being free to undertake various overseas and other journeys without having to worry about the safety of the house. Then Corona-19 Virus stopped everyone in their tracks. Luckily living in a convivial retirement setting has resulted in never feeling confined. Since 2008,  Anne and Dave have produced Christmas eLetters and Christmas eCards for electronic distribution to friends and relatives. A dwindling number of our friends still do not receive these by email and so more traditional forms of mail are required for these. 

This history was compiled by Anne and friends and covers the first 21 years of the Hastings Choristers - a Port Macquarie choir in which Anne participated throughout that time. Dave assisted in the desk-top publication and production of the book.

Click on the image on the right to see a FlipBuilder online presentation of the book. This will display as a 2-page spread in a new browser tab. When you have finished close the tab to return.