June 22nd, 2024Happy 70th anniversary!
An unlikely match produced an incredible 70-year bond for Joan and Stuart McEwen of Hepburn, who celebrate their platinum wedding anniversary next Wednesday, June 26.
It was possibly an unlikely match when a young airforce pilot officer courted an attractive young art student at Amberley RAAF Base in Queensland in 1953.
Joan was the only daughter of the senior accounting officer and was living on the base while attending the Brisbane School of Arts & Technical College.
Stuart, who grew up in Perth, had recently completed four years of officer training at Point Cook RAAF Academy and had been posted to Amberley where he was undertaking training on the RAAF 4-engined Lincoln Heavy Bomber aircraft, a derivative of the famous WWII Lancaster, which were shortly to see action in Malaya.
It must have taken some steely nerve one evening at an Amberley RAAF mess function for the young flight officer to approach the party of senior officers seated at a table with young Joan – a party that included senior wing commanders and commanding officers of the squadron, as well as Joan’s father.
Having been warned “he didn’t have a hope” Stuart nonetheless, knowing faint hearts never win fair maidens, asked permission for a dance, which was accepted.
Romance quickly followed, but within three weeks Stuart was posted to Malaya where he undertook numerous bombing and low flying missions, and fulfilled roles as navigator, bomb aimer and front gunner.
However, correspondence continued between the young couple and on Stuart’s return 10 months later, they were married in St Peters Catholic Church in Daylesford, where Joan’s parents had returned to live.
Her father, Charlie Menz, had had a long family connection with the Swiss Italian and German settlers of the area, and went on to serve the community as a councillor, Justice of the Peace and and on the Daylesford Hospital Trust.
Stuart remained with the RAAF for a total of 19 years, saw three and a half years further training in England with the RAF on Canberras, a twin-engined light bombing aircraft, then spent several months in Tennessee in the United States where he navigated the second Hercules aircraft to arrive in Australia.
The couple raised four children but Stuart’s numerous postings with the airforce – which included Singapore, Richmond, Darwin and Townsville – was difficult when raising a young family, so when numerous offers came from Ansett Airlines to consider civil aviation it was eventually accepted.
With Ansett, Stuart flew innumerable times as flight navigator overseas to Holland, Seattle and the tiny remote communities of Cocos and Cook islands off the coast of Western Australia, no easy task as radio aid was limited and astro sighting of the stars was required for navigation.
After 20 years with Ansett, Stuart retired and in 1986 he and Joan moved from Gladstone Park, a suburb of Melbourne to live in Hepburn and into the family home built by Joan’s grandmother.
Joan, despite raising a young family, continued to pursue her painting interests and talent – specialising in watercolour, oils and crayon – and contributing to numerous exhibitions in the local area.
Her works feature beautiful local studies of older buildings and the landscapes of Hepburn and Daylesford, enabling a look back into the past of the area. Though now in her 90s she continues to paint and tend to a large garden.
It is a rarity these days for couples to remain together for such an extraordinary amount of time and we congratulate them on this remarkable achievement and wish them all the best for the future. (And happy birthday to Stuart, who will be 95 on June 28!)
Words: Mike McEwen | Images: Contributed
