June and Frank O’Brien left their Horseshoe Bend home with nothing more than a bag filled with comic books and a bottle of coke when the 1955 flood inundated Maitland.
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They were married not quite one year when they had to get out of Portland Street and walk along the railway line in Maitland to safety and family at Greta.
The young couple was lucky to survive because it was not long after they were on the tracks that floodwaters washed away the railway signal box, including the people taking shelter inside.
“The water was bubbling under our feet while we walked along the railway line. We decided not to get into the signal box with the others because Frank wanted us to keep going,” Mrs O’Brien said. “The wall of water just missed us. We were so lucky.”
So they headed for higher ground in Woodberry Street, Rutherford and there they have stayed in the house that Frank built and June painted inside.
Mr O’Brien, a retired cabinet maker, hails from Horseshoe Bend and is a local legend known as Katy O’Brien, a nickname given to him in childhood.
He was a champion tennis player and A-grade rugby league player for South End with the team winning premierships in 1949 and 1950.
After living through two floods (1949 and 1955) he was keen to get out of the Bend, as it is affectionately called.
Mrs O’Brien, born and raised at Greta, worked at Harpers Cafe, Greta and at the former Bradmill.
As young teens, they met at a Maitland Town Hall dance and loved the jazz waltz. “Frank thought June looked pretty hot,” a family member wrote in a poetic tribute to the couple.
“This began a long romance so he rode his bike to meet her.”
They were married at St John’s Pro Cathedral, Maitland on April 17, 1954 and will celebrate their 60th anniversary on Thursday.
They have two sons, Trevor and Shane, three grandchildren and three great grandchildren.
Friends and family gathered at Billabongs Family Restaurant on Friday to celebrate the couple's 60th wedding anniversary.