A NSW couple have entered an exciting new phase of life in the Rolling Green Hills of the Northern Rivers District.
It was meant to be a downsize. When Janine Cullen and her partner, Gordon Critcher, set out to look for a new home after decades of living in the Wollongong beachside suburb of Woonona, they were looking for a small house with a view and less maintenance than their family home. Their search took them from Forster on the NSW Mid-North Coast to Cairns in far-north Queensland. Having rejected every place they visited — too hot, too busy, too isolated — they were on the way back to the NSW South Coast when they stopped at Lennox Head for lunch with friends.
“As it turned out, our friends’ parents were moving from their hinterland home, so we went to have a look,” Janine recalls. “While we were up there, we saw a few other places including this property at Tuckombil on the site of a former nursery. We were in love with it before we’d reached the end of the driveway.”
It bore no resemblance to what they’d been looking for. The five-acre (2.2-hectare) block came with an extensive orchard amid masses of other trees, sprawling lawns and a huge double-storey house built in the shape of an upturned ship’s hull crowned with a widow’s watch for views across the rolling green of the Northern Rivers hills. “The owner, Alan Ellis, had been a luxury boat builder and he and his wife, Sue, designed their house with a nautical feel,” Gordon says. “Alan was the project manager and it’s got the same build quality as a boat — nothing leaks or squeaks.”
Gordon, whose CV includes stints as a fire fighter, furniture, sail and saddle maker and blind and awning business owner — all of which require great attention to detail — says the house is so well engineered, it’s virtually no maintenance. The same can’t be said for the garden, which requires considerable attention, particularly since Janine has decided to exchange her busy corporate and philanthropic life for growing fruit and vegetables and preserving and pickling the surplus.
Janine’s career began as a cadet journalist on the Illawarra Mercury, which is where she met her first husband, fellow journalist Peter Cullen. Sadly, Peter passed away in 2000. Janine continued her career working for ABC radio, various TV channels, as well as writing for The Sun-Herald and AAP (Australian Associated Press) before branching out into her own communications business, which included marketing, media training and script-writing, producing and directing corporate videos. In her “spare” time, she worked for numerous charitable causes including Vision Australia, International Women’s Day and One Door Illawarra mental health services. Her tireless efforts in both business and community were recognised with an OAM (Order of Australia Medal) in 2011 and being named Wollongong Citizen of the Year.
Although they may have embarked on a new chapter, Janine and Gordon say life is busier than ever. They’ve had a constant stream of family and friends visiting, so the five bedrooms that may initially have seemed excessive are more than justified. Janine keeps her marketing hand in with a role with the Business Council of NSW and continues to work as a marketing manager for one of her long-term clients, Illawarra Diggers Aged Care. She’s joined aqua classes at the local pool, is learning lots of home skills and is enjoying settling into a new community. Gordon is relishing time to indulge his passion for making and flying model helicopters, which he describes as “truly the hardest and most demanding thing I have done”. They’re getting to know their new ’hood, often via one of the two vintage cars parked in their sizeable garage/workshops. “I was driving on my father’s lap from the age of eight,” Gordon says. “My interest in cars has only grown with the years and I’ve owned various vehicles at different times. At the moment, we have a 1928 A-model Ford and a 1925 Austin 7. We’ve joined the Ballina Classic Vehicle Club and have great times enjoying the members’ camaraderie.”
Janine says her vintage driving skills are currently limited to the driveway. “The accelerator is in the middle and the clutch and brake are on the right-hand side, so let’s say I need a bit of practice,” she says. “But I love the drives around the district. The beauty of being here is we’re 20 minutes to everywhere. It’s 20 minutes to Ballina, about 20 minutes to Byron Bay and 20 minutes to Lismore. Before we moved up here, I thought I’d be making lots of use of the cheap airfares from Ballina to Sydney, but in the past year we’ve been so busy, I’ve only been back once for a charity event. In fact, we’ve made the transition very easily. The funny thing is my parents moved from the beachfront to a farm in their retirement. I always thought that was a strange thing to have done. Now we’ve done it ourselves, it doesn’t seem odd at all.”
