General News
6 October, 2022
Seven decades for childhood sweethearts
Maryborough residents Marj and Tom Tully celebrated a very special milestone recently, marking their platinum wedding anniversary after 70 years. Aged 90 and 91, the couple remain as content with each other as they were the day they were married at...
Maryborough residents Marj and Tom Tully celebrated a very special milestone recently, marking their platinum wedding anniversary after 70 years.
Aged 90 and 91, the couple remain as content with each other as they were the day they were married at the Doncaster Church of Christ in October, 1952.
The pair were childhood sweethearts in every sense, with Tom and Marj going to a Saturday afternoon film together when they were 13 and 14 as their first ‘date’.
Looking back at how the pair came to be together, Marj said she hadn’t met Tom when he decided he was going to marry her.
“I can’t quite remember how we first met but several years after we were married, two of Tom’s friends told me a funny sort of story,” she said.
“They said I was walking home from school and Tom and these two friends who were telling the story went past in the school bus.
“They told me that Tom said to them, ‘that’s the girl I’m going to marry’ and I don’t think we’d even met at that stage which is quite funny.
“He did take me to the pictures when I was 13 and he’d walk me home from church and things like that every so often, but we didn’t start going together until I was 17.”
It wasn’t long after their marriage, when they were 20 and 21, that Tom and Marj started welcoming their children into the world, with two daughters leading the way, followed by two sons.
Marj said it was one of these sons, John, who inspired them to move to the area through the family’s love of prospecting.
“We’d been coming up to this area since the 1980s and we knew hardly anything about Maryborough at the time, we’d just pass through the edge of town on our way,” she said.
“Our son John came through Dunolly to do some prospecting with a friend and was going to meet us in Wedderburn where we were prospecting.
“I said to John, let us know if you find anything and he rang and said they’d found a four-and-a-half ounce nugget.
“I told John not to worry about coming to Wedderburn after that and we went to him in Dunolly, we hadn’t really spent time in the area until then.”
In 2008 the couple made the move from Doncaster to Maryborough to be closer to the area they’d enjoyed for so many years.
When asked if there was a secret to staying happily married for so long, Tom said family was important and despite moving away from where the pair had grown up, family made time to come and visit them.
“I think it’s a lot to do with staying close to family and all being together,” he said.
“Often when you’re young you do shift away for work so families are not close together like they used to be.
“When we were in Doncaster we were very close with our families which was always good.
“When we moved here I thought we wouldn’t be as close but we’re very busy with family visiting.”
With their four children, Tom and Marj’s family has grown over the years to include eight grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren.
The couple keep themselves occupied throughout the day with gardening, cooking, entertaining visitors and sneaking out for the occasional bit of prospecting.
“Tom goes out prospecting fairly regularly because our son-in-law and our son take him out,” Marj said.
“Sometimes I go as well and I do enjoy it, even when we’re not finding anything.”