“You have to have commitment. You have to think of the children and give them the best start to life that you can,” George said.

“You take a vow for better and for worse, I guess we must have had more betters than worsts.”

George began courting Judy in the early 1950s, after asking her to dance and come to tea with him at the Nabiac Ball. 

“There was a bit of canoodling in the car afterwards,” he admitted while 82 year old Judy blushed.

After several years of fortnightly balls at the Krambach Hall in double breasted suits and best dresses, their dates began to spread across the week until the couple ‘fell into’ getting married.

“I think we just worked it out,” Judy said, while John concurred there was no bended knee proposal.

So in front of up to 80 guests they wed at Gloucester Catholic Church on June 2, 1956, and Judy moved from her home in Bakers Creek to what was once a 1200 acre property, now 330 acres today, in Firefly. George’s family had worked the land there since the late 1800s, and he was sharefarming the dairy operation with his parents.

“They shifted out and bought a house in Krambach and a couple of the siblings camped out with us for awhile,” George said.

Judy, also from a dairy farming background, found herself right at home on the farm except for the fact that she developed an allergy to dairy.

“I’d go down to the shed and break out in eczema,” she said regretfully, adding she eventually got rid of it.

“She worked like a slave after that. I couldn’t fault her work ethic! She’d get home from a dance at 3am and be up again for the 5am milking, with no alarm. I’d just roll over and go back to sleep,” confessed George.

For better and for worse has held true for the hardworking couple, who raised four children but tragically lost two adult sons in separate circumstances. One died in a car accident aged 20. A brother later took his own life at the age of 53.

“It gets you down at times, you can be travelling along for some time doing OK and then suddenly it hits you,” George said. 

“But nothing is perfect and you just have to pick yourself up.”

Both agreed that raising a family had been their biggest challenge particularly when the kids hit high school and surfing interests replaced the farm. They said as a couple it was important to agree to disagree and get back on the bike.

“Don’t make too many hasty decisions.”

And then of course there’s companionship, one of marriage’s greatest advantages. Certainly, the ancestral farm is evidence of their partnership, with not a blade or twig out of place. Now working as beef farmers in their eighties, George is out most days tending to stock and farm issues and Judy lends a hand where she can.

“I brought the kids up on RAP – Respect, Appreciation, and Principle,” said George.

“If you’ve got those, you’ll be right.”

The couple celebrated their anniversary with a dinner at the Nabiac Hotel accompanied by their wedding party (bar one) and close friends and family.