Burrill Lake residents Isabel and Peter Finnegan are celebrating 60 years of married life.
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They wed in Manly on June 30, 1956 after Peter completed national service.
Their anniversary milestone also coincidentally marks a decade since they moved in 1996 to the South Coast from Sydney.
In the first years after tying the knot, the Finnegans lived at Dee Why where three of their four children, Martin, Therese and Denice were born.
Peter was sent to Newcastle in 1964 as a manager by his company, an insurance risk firm known then as Stenhouse Group. Stenhouse is now Aon, morphing through several identities after changes of ownership.
Continuing to raise their family, Peter and Isabel lived in the Newcastle suburb of Charlestown, where their fourth child Justine was born.
In 1976 the company moved Peter back to Sydney to manage the corporate office at Parramatta.
Isabel established a career in the Australian Red Cross and rose to be in charge of volunteer workers.
In 1996 Peter and Isabel both retired, Peter by then as general manager of a corporate division.
“That marked our move to Burrill Lake to live in our expanded weekender on the lake shore peninsula,” Peter said.
Peter got active in community affairs, becoming chairman and secretary at the Burrill Lake community hall, as well as a community representative on Council’s natural resources and floodplain committees for Burrill Lake and Lake Tabourie.
He volunteered to work for the now defunct Burrill Lake Progress Association and various Bushcare and Landcare groups.
In retirement Isabel now enjoys crafts, including quilt making, sewing and embroidery which she exhibits periodically at events around Ulladulla.
Peter said “I’ve tended to ease off a bit at age 80” from voluntary activities.
The couple plan a celebration in Sydney with friends and family on election day, Saturday July 2, including their four children and seven grandchildren, coming from Wagga Wagga, Melbourne, Brisbane and Newcastle.