Skiing friends celebrate 50 years on and off the water

Skiers took out trophy haul Gladstone Festival 1962

SKI TRICKS: Alf Kele and Tom Lambert ski at South Yaamba 1966. Picture: Contributed

ROB and Annette Cousins began their 54th wedding anniversary celebrations a few days early when they reunited Monday with four other couples they met waterskiiing around the Central Queensland region in the 1960s.

Mr Cousins was a 19 year old apprentice fitter and turner in 1963 when he and his schoolmate Mel Fairley bought a boat named Skokyian from Alf Kele.

"In 1964, I offered Annette a lift home from a coffee shop in East Street and invited her to come skiing that weekend," Mr Cousins said over lunch at the Boatshed restaurant on the Fitzroy River.

They were married November 12, 1967 and have two children.

The couple, who have two grandchildren aged 4 and 18 months, moved to Brisbane a few years ago but keep in regular contact with their club cohort.

SKI MATES: Rob and Annette Cousins, Alf and Colleen Kele, Brian and Robyn Richardson, Pam and Mel Fairley, and Tom and Judy Lambert met at the Rockhampton Ski Club in the 1960s and remain in contact 55 years later. Picture: Jann Houley

"We used to ski on the Causeway Lake or at the Farleys' property Waterview near south Yaamba," Mr Kele said.

The members, who sometimes built their own skis and ramps, would take turns between driver/observer, skiing and towing the club boats.

In a photo taken at South Yaamba in 1966, Mr Kele crouches under the homemade ramp while fellow skiier Tom Lambert soars over his head.

"First the weld didn't take and after that was fixed, one of us had to scoop water onto the ramp otherwise the wide, heavy skis would stick," Mr Kele said.

In another photo, three young lads show off their trophy haul following the Gladstone Harbour Festival which took place on Easter Weekend 1962.

Brian Richardson, Tom Lambert and Alf Kele show off their skiing trophy haul at the Gladstone Harbour Gestival Easter 1962. Picture: contributed

SKI MATES: Brian Richardson, Tom Lambert and Alf Kele met as members of the Rockhampton Waterski Club and remain friends 55 years later. Picture: Jann Houley

Mr Lambert drove a fibreglass clinker which was built in Gosford in the 1960s fitted with a Ford V8 engine which would reach speeds of 45mph (72 kph).

The ten friends gave up weekend skiing as they married and had children but they never lost contact with each other.

"I reckon I could still ski... but I don't know how I'd front up tomorrow," Brian Richardson said.

Judy and Tom Lambert's daughter Kellie from Parkhurst has followed in her parents' footsteps, taking her own kids out to ski and waterski on the Fitzroy River.

"Kellie's been skiing since she was five and now Cameron (25) and Erin (23) love the water too," Mrs Lambert said.

BIKINI BABES: Colleen Kele, Robyn Richardson, Pam Fairley, Annette Cousins and Judy Lambert remain friends 55 years after meeting at the Rockhampton Ski Club. Picture: Jann Houley

The Club was founded in 1955 by motor mechanics Norman Byrne and Kev Parker and disbanded in the late 1970s.

It is not related to the current Rockhampton skiing club.

Originally published as Skiing friends celebrate 50 years on and off the water