Allen Valentine first came to the area in 1986 as a result of a promotion for the Manning Valley in the Woden Valley shopping centre. As a result of the promotion he bought some land up the Bulga, where he regularly came up to spend holidays.
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"I fell in love with Wingham, like many people do, because of its history and Central Park, and the river, and the heritage town," Allen says.
"I thought I'd never seen anywhere else like this in Australia, it's quite unique. I've done a bit of research and I cannot find any other town in Australia that has a central park that was surveyed before it was gazetted and properly settled. So this is an original. And it had the government buildings of commerce around it.
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"I thought 'yes, I really like the size of the town and the country feel to it - pretty laid back'," Allen says.
"One of the things I do like about a so-called small town of 5-6000 people, is that we come to town and we know quite a few people. But there's a lot of people we don't know and that's good too - you don't know everybody in town and all their dirty little secrets! But you know enough to feel comfortable in your town. It's welcoming and comfortable and has most of the things that you want."
When Allen retired from the army he moved up to the Bulga for a few years before moving into Wingham. Since that day he has been heavily involved in community work since the formation of the Wingham Advancement Group (WAG).
"I got into WAG with like-minded people who wanted to make things happen," Allen says.
"The other thing that I really love about Wingham, being in the RSL and having involvement with the younger people in town, the schools, and watching the flow-through from the primary schools up into Wingham High, and then seeing the quality of young leaders coming out of Wingham High School - that's really inspiring, and I think Wingham High School's really an inspirational school in many respects, and I really like being in Wingham just to see that aspect as well.
"I've been around to see the town develop to having a little bit of Sydney, a little bit of sophistication and cosmopolitan aspect come to Wingham. We were almost the first customers through the door at Bent on Food when it was on Bent Street, because we liked our coffee and we'd been around, and we thought, 'thank goodness, here it is! Finally!'
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"Ashleah Road Boutique is bloody brilliant. Helen's been around the world and she checks out shops and she says Ashlea Road's one of the top shelf shops in Australia, let alone in a country town. And there's a lot of other shops in town that are very high quality for a country town. It's all here, we've just got to support them and keep them in town.
"I love Wingham and feel a responsibility to give back for the welcoming I had when I first came here," Allen says.
Also in the news:
Julia Driscoll
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times since 2014. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings.
Julia Driscoll has worked as a journalist for the Wingham Chronicle and Manning River Times since 2014. She values the deep connection with community that being a rural and regional journalist brings.
