Sanderson Media

Country life taught them about relationships

Thursday, August 2, 2007

Good money, good jobs and good city living taught the Spink and Ealing families nothing about relationship skills.

The Spinks family did not know too many neighbours or have time to speak with them, when they lived at Albany Creek, Brisbane.

Soon after their children could have left home, but didn’t, parents Andrew and Sylvia packed up and headed for Gayndah. The town has a population a bit over 2,000, and is located on the Burnett River 366 km northwest of Brisbane.

As Brisbane disappeared into his rear view mirror, Andrew wondered how he would cope with turning his back on 36 years of secure work with the Australian Tax Office.

Aged 52, it was a year after their youngest child had graduated from high school and two children still lived at their home at Albany Creek, learning how to live on their own. It’s not everyday that parents leave home before their children.

After another 18 months the last two left home so Andrew and Sylvia sold their house. Their children aged 26, 24, 22 and 20 had been real homebodies. They’d often leave their cars at home to save petrol and mum and dad had provided a virtual taxi service. Sylvia had cooked for them and they always borrowed money like average kids.

The Spinks with the Ealings who deserted Brisbane to take on the local RACQ workshop.

Now they had to grow up fast because Mum and Dad had left home for a tree change.

They are pretty sure that the kids would still be living with them if they hadn’t bought an LJ Hooker franchise at Gayndah, a sleepy town that claims to be older than Brisbane.

The children appeared to be growing in maturity. Maybe the desertion had done them a power of good.

Andrew said they were “making much better decisions, doing their own cooking, their own ironing, and no one has died of hunger.”

Sylvia, a nurse, went from working at the Redcliffe Private Hospital to a position with Blue Care at Gayndah. The bus service is non-existent but in case of emergency, you could always call in an aircraft.

The biggest shock with this tree change is that Gayndah people make their own entertainment.

On face value, there are some hotels, one video rental store, no cinemas and no street coffee shops as such.

If they craved history, the Spinks were in the right place. Mellors Drapery Store, 28 Capper Street is about the last in Australia that still uses a ‘flying fox’ with money being sent whizzing along wires to a central cash office.

The couple discovered something much older than the oldest school house in Queensland, in continuous use since 1861.

They found community based fun and warmth, a contrast to the teeming mass of Brisbanites who mostly ignore each other.

Back at Albany Creek, they could go to the cinema, then zip over for coffee in Aspley, go to a sporting event at Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium) or the theatre at South Bank, but each resident in that teeming city was oblivious to each other and liked it to stay that way.

At Gayndah, Andrew learnt to drawl, or at least speak more slowly, wear an Akubra (famous Australian hat made from rabbits fur) and the hardest change, get used to doing business in every place but the L J Hooker office.

“They’d rather talk real estate in the main street, at the pub, at a church fete, a race meetings or the Orange Festival, held every two years.

“And we didn’t realize there was so much to do in a country town.

“Between Sylvia and myself we are in the jockey club, tennis club, chamber of commerce and lions club. We interdenominationally attend any church fete, school fete, arts and crafts function, wine and cheese night with all manner of networking and linkages,” said Andrew.

The activity is based on friendships and is totally people-oriented.

Country people like you to join in with them, not stand back and just gawk at the activity.

“You just have to learn to converse and be friendly. Back in Brisbane, everyone was in a hurry and busily ignored everyone else. But in Gayndah you walk down the main street and it might take ten minutes to go 50 yards because people want to talk,” said Andrew.

Friends were sure the Spinks were going crazy, traipsing to a small town at age 52, to sell real estate, which they’d never done before.

“You can’t do high pressure selling in Gayndah because when people are good and ready, they make up their minds.

“In Brisbane the real estate businesses have to rely on adverts and signage to pull in the people. Gayndah has two real estate businesses and people only need to see your face,” he said.

Andrew had been an asthma sufferer in Brisbane and the traffic drove him crazy.

Nowadays they live in Capper Street, Gayndah’s main street and drive three minutes to the office, also in the main street.

Wife Sylvia sums it up: “After three years, we know most of the people in Gayndah, whereas in Brisbane, it took us 16 years in Albany Creek to get to know five people in our street.”

So if you are feeling the pressure of sophisticated city living and your children appear to be settling in for the long haul, Andrew and Sylvia might have the solution. Oh and they forgot to mention the benefit of having chickens and eating free range eggs.

Happy with their tree change are Andrew and Sylvia Spinks.

Leafy jimboomba
Living at leafy Jimboomba, you would think Denise and Alan Ealding had a dream life with their stable jobs and fancy cars.

“We were totally in a rut,” said Denise, who had a good job with Building Services Authority and Alan had been operating a mechanical workshop for the same company for 20 years.

“It seemed all work, work, work, with no real life. We owned our home that was full of modern conveniences, but the everyday trip to the city drove us stark raving mad.

“Nothing was relaxing about the daily walk down one of Brisbane’s main streets to the post office, keeping your head down because you know everyone ignores everyone else,” said Denise.

Separate from the Spinks, Alan and Denise Ealding made a life-changing decision to leave the city and buy a business at Gayndah.

The Ealdings read about the sale of a Gayndah workshop that incorporated the RACQ. They made one phone call and two and a half years later, they are a busy part of some of the organisations that the Spinks have already mentioned.

Gayndah jockey club, the oldest in Queensland, was looking for a secretary and Denise took it on, despite knowing nothing about horses, races or scratchings. Now she is able to organize two race meetings each year in the Central Burnett town.

At first it freaked the Ealdings out that country people prefer to do business in the street, possibly leaning on a post that originally was for tethering someone’s horse.

Her learning process included visiting someone admitted to hospital with a broken ankle and as the chap checked his x ray, he paused to ask for his car to be booked in for a mechanical. It seemed the next logical thing to be done, after the mechanical on his ankle.

“We’re on call 24/7 but it’s a more balanced life. There is no stress and we can work for ourselves.

“The Lions Club or someone else will put on a function and Sylvia Spinks and I get to wear our glitter.

“In the country everyone makes a big effort socially,” said Denise.

Friends at Jimboomba near Brisbane wondered if the Ealdings were losing their marbles by going bush, but they have a better social life at sedate Gayndah.
Do they miss the bright lights of the city? No.

And when they visit the big city, do they get picky about the traffic, smog and crime, and rub it in a bit.
“Yep we don’t forget to rub it in a bit,” agreed Alan and Denise.

A better life where you actually have time for people: Denise and Alan Ealding (at left) with Andrew and Sylvia Spink at their new home, Gayndah.

(Sanderson Media's breezy writing style and great images can get your message out to the world) contact john@sanderson-media.com

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