Joan and Eddie Powell were married on 11 January 1958 in St Gregory’s Church, Canterbury, England. It was a cold, winters day but that didn’t dampen the spirits of the happy couple. They had known each other since they were children as Joan’s younger brother Mick was Ed’s best friend and was often at their house. He was also Best Man at the wedding. Ed says he always knew that Joan was the girl for him, but it took a broken romance with another young man before Joan finally looked at Ed in a romantic way.
They started married life with Ed working for a transport company and Joan working on a local apple farm, bicycling to work each day. Their first child, Nina, came along in October of that year, nine months almost to the day, causing a few frantic calculations among the older relatives, much to the young couple’s amusement.
Their second child, Wendy, arrived in April of 1965 while the family was living in Bournemouth where Ed was working as a Supermarket Manager. They returned to Canterbury, but over the next few years Ed became increasingly disillusioned with England and started looking at the possibility of emigrating. Joan had a sister in the US and they had friends who had already emigrated to Australia. They decided on Australia and left England on 10 Feb 1970 as Ten Pound Poms. Travelling by plane they arrived in Brisbane two days later, going from an English winter to the full force of a hot and humid Aussie summer. It was a bit of a shock! They spent a few weeks in a migrant camp at Wacol which was an interesting experience. They woke to a cacophony of Kookaburras for the first time and encountered cockroaches as big as mice.
Ed had a job lined up in a small town called Gympie, thanks to a friend who had emigrated earlier. He worked for a small syndicate who were sinking a shaft to look for gold at Albert Park. The mine shaft was located near the highway about where the toilet block is today. Using the most basic of equipment and with workplace health and safety non-existent, Ed and his mate dug down 347 feet (approx 106 metres) but unfortunately never found the elusive gold stuff.
They had built a nice house on Cootharaba Rd but with the closing of the mine and Ed having to take a lower paid job as a builder’s labourer, they bought a little house on Brisbane Road opposite Graham St which was incredibly cheap. It was late 1972 and the Real Estate agent told them it was in a flood area but it hadn’t flooded there since 1955 so they would be ok. This was followed by a flood in July 1973 which came half a meter into the house and then the famous flood of January 1974 which came about one and a half metres inside the house. With the aid of a government grant they were able to move the house out to a block of land which they had purchased at The Dawn, a fascinating operation which Ed captured on his movie camera.
While they were living there, Nina married Lester Wilcox in 1977 and went on to give Ed and Joan three grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. By the time Wendy married Frank Kraak in 1984, Ed and Joan had been living at Cassia Court for some years and the wedding was held in their front garden. Wendy gave them five grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren with one more on the way. Sadly Wendy passed away from cancer last year at the age of 56, leaving a huge hole in their hearts.
Ed had always loved carpentry and wood-work and he built their current home at Chatsworth where they have lived for over 30 years. Ed and Joan have been long term members of the Gympie Church of Christ and still love to attend church when they are both feeling well. Ed’s other lifetime passion was rifle shooting and he is a life member of the Gympie Smallbore and Silhouette Club where he spent many happy hours as a shooter and volunteer. The Ed Powell Range was named in his honour a few years ago.
Joan’s passion was her family, but over the years she tried her hand at squash and national fitness, taught R I and Sunday School and was a Brownie leader.
When asked what they believe is the secret to a long and happy marriage they both replied that when you truly love someone, it is forever and you love them, faults and all.
