Retired dairy and deer farmers, Betty and Eric Oliver, have celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in Port Macquarie on January 30, reflecting on their life on the land.
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The pair first met by chance at a local dance in Cobram, Victoria when Betty had returned from work in Melbourne while Eric, a New Zealander, was farming.
Eric says he plucked up the courage to ask Betty for a dance.
"The boys would stand at the door of the dance hall while the women would stand at the other end of the hall," he said. "You had to walk across the dance floor just to ask for a dance."
The courageous approach was a touch of fate, according to Betty.
"Eric had came out as young fella from New Zealand in 1956 and I'd been working in Melbourne but came home to help my dad," she said.
"Being away in Melbourne I'd lost contact with all my friends and initially I wasn't going to go to the dance. My mother said 'you'd better go because your sister has made a beautiful dress'.
"It sounds funny but before I'd even spoke to him I knew I'd end up with him.
"I thought he looked decent and he just walked up to tap me on the shoulder."
The pair were engaged six weeks later, marrying on January 30, 1960 just six months after that first dance.
They began share farming and raised six children, Treena, Calvin, Derrick, Steven, Faye and Ranjie.
"The farming was hard with four babies all under the age of five and milking cows at all hours," said Betty. "We got through it and worked together."
The couple were dairy farming at Cobrom on the Murray River before Eric became a director of Murray Goulburn Co-operative, a dairy processing facility.
"At that stage they had 3000 suppliers," he said.
"We loved the dairy life, even though you never made a fortune in dairy.
"It's a shame see how bloody awful it is for farmers at the moment. It's ridiculous that we are not going to have an agriculture industry the way things are going.
"People think it should be a dollar a litre for milk, but there's huge cost to produce it. We had 20 farmers down our road and now there are only about two.
"Successive governments have wrecked dairy farming."
The pair exited to the milk industry to buy into the deer farming boom with herds of fallow and red deer. Their property, Matata Deer Farm was established in 1982 and also offered guided tours.
"We eventually had 1000 deer when we retired. It was good fun and they are beautiful animals," said Betty.
"When the deer industry boomed we bought into the excitement. It was exciting."
Their final seachange was retiring in Port Macquarie 11 years ago to pursue a relaxing lifestyle of bowls at The Westport Club, tennis and fishing in the Hastings River.
The couple now boast 18 grandchildren and five great grandchildren. They are looking to welcome two new additions to the family in the near future.
The couple celebrated their anniversary on January 18 with family.
And the secret to their success as a married couple?
"We are pretty compatible and there's give and take in what we do. You've got to be able to work things out together," said Eric.
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