End of an era for The McClymonts' Grafton history

HAPPY MEMORIES: The McClymonts family home at 180 Villiers St, Grafton is up for sale.

PARTY TIME: Toni and Peter McClymont at one of the many birthdays celebrated with the girls Samantha, Brooke and Mollie.

HAPPY MEMORIES: The McClymonts family home at 180 Villiers St, Grafton is up for sale.

HOUSES can be a lot more than just bricks and mortar. Toni McClymont is well aware of that. After spending her teenage years growing up in a house on Villiers St, she and her husband Peter purchased it from her mother and brought up their own family there for many happy years.

That family, as you may have deducted, also included a then five-year-old Brooke who celebrated her birthday the day they moved in, followed a few years later by the arrival of siblings Samantha and Mollie, aka Grafton's own country music stars The McClymonts.

The house the family has called home for more than 30 years is now up for sale and despite it being an end of era for Toni, Peter and the girls, there are plenty of great memories that were made within those walls; too many birthdays, school farewell parties, and gathering with friends to count.

"I'd virtually lived there since I was 14 until I left Grafton so it will be sad to say goodbye the place," Toni said.

Toni, who is now based in Sydney, recalls the early development of the girls' musical careers taking shape in the house and out in the backyard.

"They would play in their bedrooms and have band practice out around the barbecue area. In fact it was my friend who came around to the house and heard Brooke singing that suggested I take her down the Jacaranda Talent Quest. She was 11 years old then and the other girls followed suit. And the rest is history as they say."

The house's other function that many locals may remember was Toni's hair dressing salon located underneath the house - Tonz Home Hair Care - where the tresses of hundreds of Grafton ladies were manicured over the years.

"That helped finance all the trips away with the girls so they could perform on the talent quest circuit while they were all growing up."

Toni said despite the girls and herself no longer living in Grafton, "the place will always be in our blood".

"The girls are sad to see Villiers St go too, but they all have their own lives and starting their own families. It's time for someone else to enjoy to the place as much as we all did."

Originally published as End of an era for The McClymonts' Grafton history