Diamond celebrations

Two of Rockingham’s most well-respected and loved seniors welcomed a huge milestone last week, with Cooloongup’s Peter and Kathleen Knowles celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary last Thursday.

Mr and Mrs Knowles, who have both been involved with several community groups over the years including the Autumn Centre’s much loved Rockingham Playbacks, took the Telegraph on a fond walk down memory lane as they prepared for their 60th anniversary celebrations.

The couple, who are both originally from the UK, met at a Royal Air Force dance in Warrington in rather hilarious circumstances.

Mr Knowles, who had been posted to Padgate in Warrington after returning from three years service with the RAF in Germany, never intended to bother going to the dance where he would meet his future wife, but did so at the urging of a friend.

“We went to the dance and my friend said to me ‘there are two girls over there; which one do you fancy?’ I said ‘None of them!’,” Mr Knowles joked.

“I took a penny out and tossed it and here we are 60 years later ... lucky penny.”

Mrs Knowles said she wouldn’t change a thing.

“I wouldn’t change him for all the tea and china in the world,” she said.

They later wed in the English town between Manchester and Liverpool where they met, before honeymooning in the Isle of Mann shortly afterwards, making their big move halfway across the world 15 years later.

“There was a group of six of us that used to go out every weekend and have a drink and go the cinemas — I just said one day ‘Why don’t we all go to Australia?’,” Mr Knowles said. “

We all applied and we were the only two that got through.We came and we’ve never regretted it. “

Since moving to Perth in 1972 with four children and $500 in their pockets, the Knowles pair have forged a life for themselves and their family, which has grown to include 11 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.