Christine had been invited to a big party, but “to her sheer and utter surprise” there was no party. 

Instead she stayed and had a few drinks, and the relationship went on from there. 

“I liked Christine because she was nice and easy to get along with,” Alan says. 

The couple went out for a few years before tying the knot. 

“We used to go to dances and the drive-ins.” 

They married on February 20, 1965, at Methodist Ladies College, Hawthorn. 

Originally from Rutherglen, Alan worked for TAA as an aviation instrument maker and repairer, later becoming an aircraft maintenance engineer. 

City girl Christine grew up in the Ivanhoe area and worked at the State Bank head office. 

They lived in Fiji for 18 months while Alan helped set up Fiji Airways. 

They have three children – Robert, Karen and Jennifer – three grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.

“We’ve spent a lifetime fighting various services on behalf of our son, who has an intellectual disability,” Alan says, “so we don’t have time to do much together or to disagree with each other. 

“While on holidays in Bendigo in 1980 and admiring the view from the Wade Street hill, Christine commented, ‘I suppose if we ever got a weekender, somewhere like here would be all right’, as Christine wanted to be by the sea and I wanted to live in the bush.

“We got in the car to leave and drove over a ‘for sale’ sign lying in the grass,” Alan says. “It was a dilapidated miner’s cottage, which we then purchased.

“In 1991 we built a new house where the cottage once stood and retired to Bendigo in 2007. 

“We’re extremely happy here.” 

Alan enjoys flying radio-controlled aircraft and Christine likes her weekly line dancing and day club activities. 

To celebrate their anniversary, they took the extended family for a weekend away at the Moama holiday villas.