“All my mates had been talking about this really hot barmaid in the Red Cow (I mainly used the Star pub at that time),” Peter explains. 

“The first time I saw Lyn I thought to myself how good looking she was. All my mates said I had no chance, she’s too good looking for me, but I didn’t listen.

“I kept going up to the bar and getting Lyn to serve me, even buying her a few drinks, eventually I found the courage to ask her out and to my amazement she said yes. 

Lyn recalls, “Pete always seemed to be in the bar when I was working! I thought then he was a great guy, he had a huge smile and a cheeky sense of humour. He would buy me a drink whenever he was buying a round. 

“We started dating shortly after we first met.”

Things moved along and Lyn proposed to Peter on a leap year Valentine’s Day and he said yes.

“We had a lot in common; common values, what Lyn wanted in life I also wanted i.e. we both enjoyed travel, food and drink,” Peter says. 

“We went away most weekends.” 

They were married on February 23, 1985, at St Michael’s church in Tilehurst almost a year to the day from their engagement. They have three children – Ben, (born on their second wedding anniversary), Joe and Ellie, and three grandchildren.

Peter’s uncle had moved to Australia as a “ten pound pom”, and often talked about his adopted country.  They came out in March 1999 to visit an aunt in Perth, loved it, returned home and by October of that year had sold their house, said their goodbyes to family and moved here with a suitcase each.

Peter started work with McPhersons book printers in Maryborough and they became Australian citizens in 2008. “Lyn is a fantastic wife, lovely mother and caring grandmother,” Peter says. 

“After 30 years of marriage I know I can always count on her. I can truly say I still love her with all my heart. 

“Australia is home now. It’s God’s own country.”