WHEN young newlyweds Avis and Max Simmons honeymooned in Tasmania in 1960, they became part of a disastrous event in Hobart’s history.
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The devastating floods in April that year left businesses underwater, basements flooded, and bridges washed away. And residents and visitors in lockdown.
Sixty years later, on their 60th wedding anniversary on Thursday, Avis and Max are again in self-isolation.
This time due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are tremendously saddened we can’t celebrate with family and friends as we did for our 50th,” Max said.
However, the Bamawm Extension couple were just thankful they were together.
“We have a feeling of isolation out here on our little farm, so we’re not really that badly off.”
As honeymooners, Max said they weren’t too perturbed either.
After meeting on a blind date in 1958, Avis Stewart and Max Simmons were married at the then St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Echuca at 5pm on Easter Saturday, they flew to Hobart on Easter Sunday.
They spent their first week at the Hadley’s Orient Hotel.
The day after arriving, they hired a VW Beetle (with a heater) and drove to the top of Mt Wellington where it was snowing.
“It was the first time we’d experienced snow,” Max said.
“It was a great day and we even made a snowman.”
But by April 20, the rain started and didn’t stop for four days, with more than 250mm falling.
“Sadly, we had to self-isolate,” Max said.
“The Hobart Rivulet begins below Mt Wellington and changes to tunnels through the CBD, under shops and stores such as Myers. The tunnels became choked with logs and debris, flooding into the streets.
“We watched from our hotel window as people were being rescued from store basements in the buckets of front-end loaders.
“I believe this flood was only surpassed by the floods of 1929.”
The couple managed to leave on the last bus for Hobart airport, across a pontoon bridge over the Derwent River.
“The gale force winds whipped up waves so high, they rocked the bridge and swamped the bus. We thought we were goners,” Max said.
Launceston beckoned, but the Esk River had also flooded Cataract Gorge, including the park, swimming pool and adjoining bowling green.
“The weather became more suitable for sightseeing and we spent a great week there,” Max said.
Returning to Echuca, the Simmons started planning for their first home to be built in Cypress St, where they lived for almost 40 years and welcomed their children, Warren and Melinda.
Max worked for 38 years as a mechanical design draftsman with Ordnance Factory Echuca, UBCO, SKF and Foodmach, which were all in the same building, and another eight years contract drafting with Nestle.
Avis worked as a medical receptionist at Echuca-Moama Family Medical Practice for 28 years, with both of them retiring in December 2001.
During the early years, Max said the biggest challenge they faced was just the usual money problems living on one wage.
“I remember gratefully my father-in-law, a wheat farmer and contractor, asked me to help prepare a paddock of his at Torrumbarry,” Max said.
“We sowed the wheat and after harvest, he presented us with a cheque for an amount that we’d never had before. That got us back on our feet.”
When Avis’ parents retired to Echuca, the Simmons moved to their farmlet at Bamawm Extension in 2000, where they still live.
“Thankfully we’re enjoying our octogenarian years in fairly good health,” Max said.“We’ve both been fortunate health-wise, it’s just old-age problems nowadays.”
As for the secret to their longevity, Max said they didn’t have one.“How has Avis put up with me for so long? Must be the eighth wonder of the world,” Max laughed.
“We’ve just tried to agree to a final solution, give our kids a tertiary education and just stay friends all along.”
Their plan for their diamond wedding anniversary was to return to the 186-year-old Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart.
However, the COVID-19 travel restrictions mean they won’t be going anywhere, not even out of their house.
Not that it worries them too much.
“Our daughter Melinda is delivering some flowers this evening in a drive-by type of situation and we’ll be dressing up for our candlelight dinner for two,” Max said with a twinkle in his eye.