Our Weekender

Enjoyed by Family and Friends

During the late 1970's, Marion and Ron along with their two children often travelled from their home at Dalton on the Southern Tables of New South Wales to visit Marion's Mother and Father (Fredrick Gould Dinning & Margaret Hinchliffe) who lived at Charmhaven on the Central Coast of New South Wales, this was when they discovered Mannering Park as it was only 10 kilometres form Charmhaven.

In 1980 Ron Burchell excepted a job transfer from Canberra Australian Capital Territory to Sydney New South Wales. Soon after the move to Sydney Ron and Marion purchased their 'Weekender' at Mannering Park.

There was always plenty of Fun and Laughter in and around this little house at 1 Greenway Avenue Mannering Park New South Wales. The house was right across from the lake and there was a well worn track made to and from by us all. Alan and Cath Roy lived by the lake, we instantly all hit it off, we were able to share many good times with Alan, Cath and their family over the years.Sonya Burchell

It soon became the norm for our children to bring along their mates for weekends and holidays, Sonya's regulars being Justine, Linda, Anthea, and Chris with Malcolm, Gavin, Nathan, they also palled up with the local kids. The house was pretty well bursting at the seams most times, and we just had to grimace when we got to the checkouts to pay for all the food, but no one can ever say they did not have a great time which was our reward, and importantly for us we always knew where our kids were and that they were safe.

Also Ron and Marion were able to offer Family and Friends from oversea's accommodation, in the previous photo we have Jill and John Gaywood staying awhile from England.

Fun, Relaxation and play were the order of the day

There was always plenty of laughter at RKB's expense when he 'Fell Off' the water ski's.

During our time at Mannering Park we were introduced to the challenge of sailing by Alan and Cath Roy. We bought a Farr 6000, a 20foot Trailer Sailer and a Book called How to Sail- 3 weeks later we joined the Mannering Park Sailing Club, racing every Saturday- we were hooked.

In 1988 we took the family together with Sonya's boyfriend of the day to the Whitsunday Islands where we had a charter yacht- it was a 33 footer. Alan and Cath also came in their boat and we all had fabulous time, although at the end the holiday the rose coloured glasses were off with the boyfriend !!! Shortly after as Sonya and Chris now had more interests that drew them to Sydney for weekends, we sold the holiday house and the little yellow Farr and bought a BIG boat, a sleek, fast S&S 36 footer and that is another story.