My husband and I were in York, running a family business, and we were looking for somewhere to move to when we saw The Grand in Northam. I fell in love with the staircase, and we just took a leap of faith.

I grew up in Northam, and now in retirement, I’ve returned. Why come back? Well the simple answer, or the believable answer, is that I like building houses and the land in Fremantle was too dear. That’s the simple answer, but really, I think because I was born here, there was this attraction to my roots. People are like salmon, often drawn back to their birthplace.

I live on a home farm in Southern Brook, which is about twenty five kilometres east of Northam and consists of a hall, some rarely used tennis courts and a disused golf course. The population, officially, is probably zero, but the community is made up of surrounding farmers, so at the Christmas party, you’d probably get up to a hundred people.

I’ve left and returned to Northam four times in my life. We first shifted here when I was fifteen and my Dad ran the old swimming pool. I grew up, married a born and bred Northam girl – I met her at a Bachelor and Spinsters Ball in Muresk and we’re twenty five years married this year – and even though we’ve been around Australia, we just sort of always came back here.

We’ve been in Northam for about thirty three years, though I was born and bred in Kalgoorlie. I’ve had a bit of a varied working life: I’ve worked in an office, on a sheep station, I’ve been a farmer, a retailer at Coles and a drummer in a rock and roll band.