“I phoned up right away,” says Desmond, “and a bloke came round with his presentation and told us they’d fly us up there to have a look.  If we bought some land the flight was free – if we didn’t then we’d pay back half.  It seemed like a pretty good deal.”

The Webbs used the ‘free’ flight as an opportunity to visit Brisbane, a city they had not been to previously.  Desmond says, “We fell in love with the place, I thought it was a magnificent city and couldn’t believe we hadn’t been there before.”

The decision was made to purchase a block near the top of Investigator Avenue for the incredible price of $6500 – one of the first blocks sold in the brand-new Cooloola Village (as it was called then) development.  “The forestry was the main attraction for me,” says Des, as the land they bought backs onto the Toolara State Forest.  

So after 15 years of living in Melbourne, the Webbs moved up to Brisbane in January 1979 but Desmond found it difficult to settle into his work and so opted for early retirement in September 1979, at age 50.  “Oh I felt as if I’d been reborn!” he says of the decision.  They then moved up to the Bay, living in rented accommodation while building their two-storey brick house out in ‘Cooloola Village.’ 

Building the house was its own adventure, with Desmond and Daphne assisting the builders with much of the work – including having to pick up 4000 bricks by hand after the truck carrying them toppled into a ditch.  “We then had to handle all 4000 of them again and sort them into piles.  I never wanted to see another brick again in my life!” Des says.  Drainage problems were soon resolved by Les Reibel, who dug a ditch and “filled it with hundreds of scallop shells of all things.  It worked a treat!”

By the time the house was finished, it was only the fifth house to be built in the new Village, but Desmond and Daphne embraced their rural surrounds.  They cleared the weeds from a large running creek across the road and swam in it daily, and regularly enjoyed walks through the bush.  “It was probably 20 years after moving in before anything really happened.  There wasn’t even a postal service – we had to collect our mail from Tin Can Bay,” says Des.

One of the biggest changes they’ve noticed over the decades has been the decline in local wildlife.  “When we moved here there was wildlife like nobody’s business!” says Des. “Brumbies across the road, peacocks in our back garden, plus dingoes and the odd wallaby or kangaroo.  Living here we really got to understand snakes and we’re not a bit bothered by them.”

Moving to Australia from London in 1963, it is clear the Webbs have fully embraced the Aussie – and particularly the Queensland – lifestyle.  A move to Bruny Island in Tasmania in 1999 was swiftly reversed after experiencing the weather.  Says Desmond: “Within a matter of days I started to realise we’d made a mistake…and by the end of the month I KNEW we’d made a mistake.  It was absolutely freezing!”  Having sold the house in Cooloola to make the move, they were astonishingly able to buy the house back - and for the same price they’d sold it. 

They are now happily re-ensconced in the house they built thirty years ago, where they will celebrate their 60^th wedding anniversary this May.  And while Cooloola Village – now Cove – has changed even more than Bert Newton’s face, here is where they will gladly stay.