“It has been a good life” is how Wal and June Carter summarised their 60 years of marriage celebrated quietly with their family recently.

The couple moved to their adopted home town with their two little girls in 1978 and loved it right from the start.

Growing up thousands of kilometres apart, it was at a dance in Charters Towers that their paths crossed and their journey together began.

Wal grew up in a family of three boys and a girl at historic Windsor, where his father was involved in recruit training for the RAAF. After school he gained an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner in Sydney travelling 90 minutes each way to work at Winters Engineering.

He was working at Townsville maintaining diesel locomotives on the railway when he went to Charters Towers for the dance and met his future wife June Willis who was working as a shop assistant. June’s father was employed at the post office and she grew up in a family of five girls at Charters Towers, 136kms south west of Townsville.

Their wedding was held at St Columba’s Catholic Church in June’s home town, on July 31, 1965, June’s sister Carol was her bridesmaid, while the best man was Wal’s mate John Barnes from Sydney. The wedding reception at The CWA Rooms in Charters Towers was followed by a honeymoon on Magnetic Island just off the coast of Townsville, where they began their married life together.

Four years after their marriage the couple moved to Ashford (NSW) where Wal was employed at the power station owned by the county council at Inverell.

Their daughter Meredith was born at Inverell in 1969 and was followed by Elizabeth in 1973 making their family complete.

In 1976 Wal’s work took them to Quirindi where they stayed until their move to Gunnedah two years later, where the girls attended St Xavier’s School and St Mary’s College.

Wal really enjoyed his 23 years at Gunnedah hospital, where he was in charge of the facility’s redevelopment in the early 1990s, recalling that it “was a great place to work” but soon after his retirement in 2001, June and Wal decided that it was time to see the world.

The girls had flown the nest with Meredith (now Harper) taking up nursing, advancing to Nurse Unit Manager (NUM) at Tamworth Hospital Primary Care Service, while Elizabeth (North) is a senior analyst auditor with NAB in Toowoomba.

Travel was high on their retirement radar, with exciting trips overseas to the UK and Egypt where they soon learned that camels have the right of way and continued to wonder at the mystery of the pyramids that still stand tall in the desert.

They also visited Russia and many countries in Europe as well as New Zealand, where Wal tried his hand at snow skiing; cruised from Chile to Argentina and Athens to Perth. Their stop-over in Turkey included a journey to Gallipoli where like many others before them, they shook their heads at the incredulous task set before the troops as they arrived on that fateful day in April 1915.

One of their favourite places to visit, was and still is, Fiji, where Wal’s brother owned a resort. Norfolk Island is also high on that list.

Their love of family always holds a special place in their lives, with their grandchildren Max and Sam (North) and Rosie and Jemima (Harper) bringing them much joy,

To their great delight they have been gifted with the joy of great-grandchildren through Rosie’s daughter Lily and Jemima’s daughter Pippa.

Wal took up golf when he came to Gunnedah with his greatest achievement a hole-in-one on the 13th. He still enjoys a round or two every week.

Looking back over their lives, Wal and June feel content. They are very proud of their girls and what they have achieved and feel very blest to have such a wonderful family and each other.

June and Wal Carter pictured outside the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood in St Petersburg, Russia, in 2015. Built on the site where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in 1881, the church features magnificent architecture.

The letter from King Charles for the Carter’s 60th anniversary.