As Queen Elizabeth II was feted in Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London last week, a Berwick couple was celebrating a jubilee milestone of their own.
Frank and Margaret (Peg) Sutherland marked their 70th wedding anniversary with family on Tuesday 7 June at their home at Fiddler’s Green Retirement Village in Berwick.
It was 1950 when Peg, hailing from the small country town of Goroke, met Frank, who grew up on a farm in Albury, on a tennis court in the Victorian town of Hamilton.
“Dad played tennis competitively until he was 90, but mum was more into it for the social aspect… she stopped playing shortly after they married,” daughter Anne Ng laughed.
Two years later in 1952, they wed in Albury, before moving to Ballarat and starting a family.
It was there Frank recalls meeting the British Monarch, Queen Elizabeth II and her husband Prince Phillip when they toured Australia for the firsy time in 1954.
“We were living in Ballarat at the time and we saw her and Phillip in an open car down the main street,” Mr Sutherland said.
Now 93 and 91 years of age, Peg and Frank share five children, Phillip, Anne, Marita, Jane and Karen, as well as 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren, with another on the way.
Mr Sutherland said it took him a while to get used to a full house.
“I only had one brother, whereas my wife is one of 14, so it was definitely a bit of a shock for me,” Mr Sutherland said.
After 13 years in Ballarat, Frank, a shearer by trade, was given the opportunity to open a shearing shop in the south eastern suburb of Chadstone.
They stayed in Chadstone for 50 years and today enjoy their time together in a serviced apartment at Berwick’s Fiddler’s Green.
In 2010 Mr Sutherland was honoured with a Tennis Service Award from Tennis Victoria for his service to the sport.
Meanwhile, the couple’s daughters say their mother’s claim to fame has always been her baking.
“She was a great country baker. She made yo-yos, jelly cakes, shortbread, sponges, Christmas cakes, the whole lot,“ Mrs Ng said.
They said their parents have shared a long, loving relationship.
“Like any relationships it’s had its ups and downs, but they’ve stuck by each other and it’s an unbelievable achievement,“ daughter Marita Bracun said.
“It’s quite extraordinary, I’ve never known anyone to make it to 70 years wed.“
