Community & Business
17 February, 2026
Special day to celebrate 60 years
VALENTINE’S Day was a special one for Mareeba couple Cheryl and Eric Emmerson who took advantage of the day for romance to mark their 60th wedding anniversary.
The couple were actually married in Mareeba on 12 February 1966, but decided to have a celebration of the wedding milestone on Saturday, surrounded by family and friends.
Cheryl (nee Powell) and Eric were wed at the then modern Mareeba Methodist Church – later the former Uniting Church, which is now heritage listed.
Eric and Cheryl were both born in England, him in London in 1946, and his bride-to-be in 1949 at Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
“Something I discovered many years after we were married is that my father (from Bristol in England) was born in a house at Emmerson Square, and 41 years later, I married an Emmerson! It was a strange and eerie co-incidence to discover that,” Cheryl recalled.
The Emmersons migrated to Australia on the SS Moreton Bay in January 1950 and the Powells set sail in 1952.
Eric and his family came straight to Mareeba to join their relatives, and have remained here ever since. In contrast, the Powell family took up travelling around Australia for many years until settling in Mareeba in 1965.
“My dad got a job as head panel beater at Mareeba Motors, where Eric was an 18-year-old apprentice panel beater,” Cheryl recalled.
“My mum and dad were very social and often had parties, which Eric would come to, and that was how we met. I was 15 and he was 18 and we both fell in love.”
The couple were married two days before decimal currency was introduced.
“I remember receiving some cheques as wedding presents that were in the new decimal currency. I thought we were rich because suddenly 10 pounds became 20 dollars!” Cheryl laughed.
The couple had their first son, Daniel, later in 1966 and another son, David, in 1970.
“Sadly, Danny and his wife Sarah passed away before having any children, and this was a very bleak time in our lives. Our youngest son has never married so no grandchildren for us,” Cheryl said.
“But we have some lovely nephews and nieces, and great nephews and nieces.”
In the early days times were hard, and spare money was hard to come by.
“Back then, we lived week by week on an apprenticeship wage of $15 a week – $5 for rent, $5 for bills (we were still paying off Eric’s wedding suit), and $5 for shopping,” Cheryl explained.
“Nothing was left over for entertainment – we made our own visiting friends, playing cards, going on picnics and so on.
“Eric worked very hard in the early days – all week panel beating and then on spare weekends he would go to work on farms clearing wild tobacco. Very hard yakka.”
He was also a corporal in the Australian Army Reserves (CMF).
“We always looked forward to tax times as refunds were pretty much guaranteed in those days,” Cheryl said.
“Not because we paid too much tax, but back then you could claim nearly everything off your taxable income – things like chemist bills, schooling costs, rates, life insurance, doctor and dentist bills, plus substantial concessional deductions for dependents.
“I started working once both boys were at school and slowly we bettered ourselves until through the years we owned our own businesses – Foresto & Emmerson Smash Repairs, Tableland Video, Novus Windscreen Repairs & Compucher Bookkeeping Services, which I am still doing.
“We now had time, and money, to be able to do, and share with each other, the many things we wanted to do. We went MX motorcycling with the boys, we took up sailing and I went travelling.
“In the last seven years, we have been heavily involved as members and volunteers of the Mareeba RSL Sub Branch.”
Sixty years with someone is not always easy but Cheryl has some advice: “If there is any formula for the success of our marriage of 60 years, I think it is this – love, respect, sharing, caring, and letting each other be the person they want to be.
“And I hope we continue doing what we do for many more years to come!” she added.
