“My 3 children were all born in New Guinea. We lived in NG for 14 years as my husband and I were teaching there. I was originally from Melbourne and I went on loan for 2 years from the Victorian Secondary teachers, met Warren and we married fairly soon after. I was supposed to come back after 2 years but it ended up being 14 years when my eldest was to go to high school. My husband had grown up in New Guinea but actually went to boarding school in Australia. When we came back we settled here on the Northern Rivers as we loved the temperature. In Melbourne you go out in spite of the weather, up here you go out because of the weather. We bought this 33 acre property here in Eltham 35 years ago. We had to put the driveway in so we could get the house lifted in. The house was built in 1904 and was originally one of the first houses in the main street in Alstonville. It belonged to people called Daley. The girls went to Lismore High and my son went to Alstonville High.
Last year I had a lot of medical issues, cancer of the nose and other problems and I had to travel to Brisbane a lot. Through this I got involved with HART Services which used to be called Northern Rivers Community transport. They sent out a booklet and they had a thing called Able Gardens and I thought it was so good. My garden had got beyond me and I like to be outdoors as much as possible, that’s part of living on the North Coast. There were vines everywhere, Wisteria, ferns, Jasmine and weeds covering everything. Able Gardens came out and they were such nice people. Walter is the CEO and everyone else are volunteers. Some of the volunteers are retired and they work really hard, they are all funny and great people. Twice a year they do a big garden blitz and Walter suggested my garden. So today we have a crew of 6 from Bunnings who have donated all the plants and the workers and the mulch, everything. It’s all through HART Services. I had to get a gate made as the cows were coming in and munching everything and I don’t want them to eat my new garden. I really love this place.”
(more to follow in my next post with before and after pics of Trish’s garden)