Community & Business
3 February, 2026
Stormy start, but 50 years happy
AS the saying goes, ‘a bad start is a good finish’, and after 50 years, Mareeba couple Allison and Peter Geisel celebrated their golden wedding anniversary recently, with an overseas trip to New Zealand and a moving ceremony to renew their vows.
This second time round was a little smoother than the first, with their December 1975 nuptials somewhat more challenging, according to Allison.
To be held in Townsville where Allison’s parents lived, the couple were, at the time, teaching in Innisfail, roughly a three-hour trip by road, planning for a Saturday wedding.
Peter left by car on the Wednesday and Allison and a bridesmaid were to drive there on the Friday.
But the weather took a turn for the worse. Peter disappeared – no phones, internet, etc. He had sunk the car in one of the flooded creeks on the way and no one had heard from him.
For the bride to be, the local travel agent refused to let the women drive and booked them, and Allison’s dog, on a plane for Friday.
So, on that night before the wedding, Allison’s plane couldn’t land due to severe storms and was circling Townsville, and Peter was lost on the road.
But all ended well when Allison’s plane finally landed and a truck helped Peter out. They married on a hot summer day in Townsville.
Cairns-born Allison met Peter, born in Toowoomba, when they were both hand-picked to work as teachers in Bamaga in 1973, opening a new school as part of a plan to bring Torres Strait Islanders to the mainland to live in a residential college and have access to secondary education.
The event was even celebrated at State Parliament when the group of teachers met with the then Minister for Education.
After their wedding, the couple secured teaching positions at Mareeba State High School. It was here that Allison reconnected with her pioneering family history.
Her grandmother was the Post Mistress at Mt Molloy, and daughter of the Sorensen family (Allison’s great, great grandparents) who had settled at the Mitchell River on the way to Mt Molloy. They had set up a halfway house for travellers heading to the goldfields at Cooktown and Maytown.
Her grandfather, Gabriel Sorensen, had a bullock team transporting goods and materials to the gold fields. The family later settled at the ‘The Springs’ near Sorensen Creek just outside Mareeba.
The family are buried in the old pioneer cemetery in Mareeba, and Allison and Peter settled in Rains Street, right beside it, happy to be close by.
The couple have three sons, Wayne, Robert and Dean, who all went to Mareeba State School and then Mareeba State High School, before being employed as apprentices in Cairns.
Wayne and Robert are married, work in mining and construction and live interstate with their families. Dean lives in Mareeba and has a successful building business. The couple enjoy four grandchildren.
When reflecting on their 50 years of marriage, Allison recalled her mother’s words: “If there are no fights or arguments in a relationship, then one of them is always getting their own way”.
As both are strong characters, Allison and Peter’s marriage journey had “certainly not been smooth sailing” but they are both content, happy and proud to have reached this milestone together.
They are still in Mareeba 50 years on and think maybe they can now be classed as “locals”.
