Just to set the scene.. we got married on the 8 January 1972 in Brisbane. We look very young in this picture -but that is because we were young: Rob was 3 days away from his 21st birthday; I'd turned the ripe old age of 20, the October before .....
We had an extremely exotic "honeymoon" straight after our wedding, in Port Macquarie, a beachside resort a bit over 535km from Brisbane. It was the second time ever I'd travelled south of the Q'ld-NSW border area, and it may have been Rob's first!. 530 klm must have seemed like a big drive so we had a stopover in Grafton on the way there.
The pic below is of me in Grafton with our trusty little VW Beetle. Three months later it drove us and all our worldly possessions to Canberra where we've lived ever since!
In Port Macquarie we stayed in the Beach Front Motel just across the road from beautiful Town Beach - it seemed quite fancy (for us) at the time!
Just for fun I found an image of the same area today (thanks Mr Hooker for the purple arrow which doesn't apply in this case) - the 60s era Beach Front Motel has long gone!
A picture of Rob - looking very cool at the Flagstaff Hill Lookout, at the southern end of Town Beach.
Looking down on to Oxley Beach to the south of Flagstaff Hill....
I found an image of the lookout today - the white picket fence has gone (thank goodness) and native vegetation is back in favour!
..and Oxley Beach today - looking a bit less sunburnt than in my picture...
Aside from its beautiful beaches Port Macquarie has some very historic sites, being one of the oldest penal settlements in Australia. We enjoyed looking at some of these sites - not every honeymooner gets their picture taken at the local cemetery!!!
I made sure my outfit was colour coordinated for my visit to this convict era church!
We don't remember going out to fancy restaurants in Port Macquarie (were there any?), so our small celebration of Rob's 21st birthday was a DIY (shirt free) affair!
We saw a bit of the surrounding area too, including North Brother Mountain about 40 klm south of Port Macquarie near Camden Head and the Trial Bay area about 80klm north.
Along with the grim charms of the heritage listed goal ruins - there was quite a bit of excitement down on the beach area of Trial Bay the day we visited. The old Sydney Queen (ferry) had started taking in water on its last ill fated tow from Sydney on the way to the Philippines. It drifted into shore here and ultimately destroyed itself, creating a huge mess and problems for the locals in the process.
Despite the terrible photos we loved our "honeymoon" in Port Macquarie despite its daggy factor (which we didn't know about in 1972). In fact, with COVID-19 and all that we'll be taking more holidays/road trips like this (if we're lucky!!) over the next little while.
The pic below is of me in Grafton with our trusty little VW Beetle. Three months later it drove us and all our worldly possessions to Canberra where we've lived ever since!
We saw a bit of the surrounding area too, including North Brother Mountain about 40 klm south of Port Macquarie near Camden Head and the Trial Bay area about 80klm north.
Along with the grim charms of the heritage listed goal ruins - there was quite a bit of excitement down on the beach area of Trial Bay the day we visited. The old Sydney Queen (ferry) had started taking in water on its last ill fated tow from Sydney on the way to the Philippines. It drifted into shore here and ultimately destroyed itself, creating a huge mess and problems for the locals in the process.
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