Titlenot specifiedAdditional InformationRemembering Laguna House - My mother and father, Ben and Esme Thatcher b ought Laguna House in 1944 from Jim and Molly Gibney.. We moved from Dagun on the Mary Valley. I was 6 and my sister was a month old baby. We catered for about 150 people, full board 3 meals plus morning and afternoon teas. Supplied work for a lot of locals, 2 chefs, 10 for waiting on tables and housekeeping receptionist, 2 men for cleaning fish and poultry ready for the kitchen. Christmas holidays was a fun time. Sheps band from Gympie would play for guests each lunch time and then dances on the veranda. New Year's Eve was a big fancy dress ball in the dining room Mum and dad sold Laguna in early 50s to Tom and Bess Gilchrist. Their son Ken who married Delce Fleming took over. Delce continued at Launa after Ken passed away, later marrying Stuart Poole. Dad built 4 white timber lats on the corner where the Emerald is no and then was the first to reclaim the mangrove swamps behind the flats and built Thatcher's caravan park. My late husband and myself ran the park until we sold in 80s. Noosa was an amazing place to live back then. I till live on the hill overlooking beautiful Noosa...
After my mum and dad bought Laguna in 1944 dad installed lights on the tennis court, as reported in the newspaper, the first tennis court on the north coast to have lights. They were good tennis players, dad Ben Thatcher was north coast singles champ and mum won the doubles with Ken Gilchrist. Later on my girlfriend Joy Auld married a boy by the name of Roy Emerson, Wimbledon Champion. They would come and stay with us at the old flats and we would play on the Laguna court. We ended up ball girl and ball bay, but what fun and they loved Noosa and stay with me when here for the Australian Open each year as they now live in America.
(Source: comments made by Denise on social media)Date22 May 2019PhotographerChris PeckhamStudioSource MediaImage NoT2005104
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