Recently we travelled to Nelsons Bay around Newcastle, NSW for a (Wallabies from Malaysia) reunion - a gathering of old Wallabie football club members who all were in the RAAF and posted to Butterworth sometime from the 1970's to early 2000ish.
We meet at an Australian venue every three years to relive the glory rugby days and fun we all had whilst posted to RAAF Butterworth.
2014 reunion was held in Nelsons Bay and hosted by Ken and Chris Honeyset. There was a large gathering of about 140 members and spouses, some travelling from Darwin, Townsville, Perth, Tasmania, South Australia, NZ but the bulk of the crowd were from the East coast of Australia.
Our Saturday night function was held at the Nelsons Bay Golf Club. Throughout the evening a compilation power-point presentation flashed over a big screen of days gone by, also video productions of funs and games had in Malaysia.
Pictures of Wallabies at the Saturday night function
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| Wallabies cake - our colours |
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| Jean, Margaret, Lorrie and Di |
We were in Malaysia at the same time, late 70's - we played basketball and football together and were part of the invaluable "Chook cookers" (money raisers). A lot of fun had together!
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| Jean, Deb and KG |
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| The Cameron kids - Karen and partner, Sonia and husband and Daniel |
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| Margaret and David S and Di W |
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| Rodney and John (Stretch) Murray |
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| Billy G and Noaksie |
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| Betty and Lilly |
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| Dave |
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Flo (standing), JC, Moorie and Jill W
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It was wonderful to reunite with friends and relive all those fabulous times we had in our younger days. In 2017, the next reunion is being held in Georgetown, Penang Island, Malaysia.
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The Hunter Valley Wine Trail
Back in the early 1980's, on our posting to Williamtown, NSW, some of our times were spent around the vineyards quaffing cask wine. On this occasion we were able to sample some of the finer Hunter Valley wines in a bit more style. We stayed a couple of days in the Valley, hired a mini bus to chauffeur us around a few of the vineyards and cellar doors.
We visited Sobel Wines, Ivanhoe, Pooles Rock and Tyrells vineyards, Smelly Cheese, Vodka Distillery and we lunched in an old brewery, we got around....
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| Ivanhoe Vineyard |
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| Red rose bush |
Poole Rock vineyard - rose bushes are planted at the end of the rows to depict either a red wine or a white wine
Tyrell's Winery - this one in particular was an old haunt in days gone by.
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| Wolfie and Janis Heims |
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| Kev Smith |
At Nelsons vineyard, a boutique vineyard - it belonged to a friend of a friend
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| An unforgettable sunset |
The view is what TC is pointing to ...
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| A sundowner at Nelsons Vineyard - Dave, TC, Waldie, Jean, Smithie and Betty |
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We stopped at Tamworth to see my long lost cousin. It had been over 30 years since we had seen one and other. Judy and Gordon are managing a motel in the town. We enjoyed some of the Tong's wonderful hospitality, reminisced and walked down memory lane. It was great catching up!
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| Cousin Judy and Jean |
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We had come across this place before and stumbled upon it again on this occasion. We were driving from Tamworth to the coast, going through the Guy Fawkes National Park and just before Grafton, the Nymbodia Inn.
Beautiful river views from the beer garden
