On August 28, Margaret and John Noller celebrated their diamond wedding anniversary and both agree they have had a wonderful life together.

The two met in Newcastle where Margaret worked in a jewellery store and John was an engineering apprentice with BHP Steelworks.

On April Fools’ Day in 1952, John, who had been drinking with friends, was urged to call Margaret at work by one of her friends.

“One of my girlfriends got a man to ring my work as an April Fools’ Day joke,” Margaret said.

“I was working at a jewellery store and John called me and asked me out.

“By the time he got around to telling me to come around and see him, he was pretty fooled.”

The pair can’t quite remember how a marriage proposal came about or what words were said, though Margaret suggested that she might have just made up her mind they would be married.

And married they were, in 1954, at St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Newcastle.

Since then, Margaret and John have lived in Canada, Hong Kong and New Zealand, making lasting friendships wherever they travelled.

The Nollers have three children, Jennifer, Stephen and Ann, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and are eagerly awaiting the birth of another great-grandchild this month.

John said they have been lucky throughout their marriage with that life’s tribulations had left them unscathed.

“We have been very lucky to never have any trauma during our marriage,” he said.

“It’s strange when I think back to all the times we moved from Sydney to Melbourne or to Hong Kong, we never had any problems. Things just fell into place.”

Margaret said she and John worked well together as a team, a vital ingredient in their long-lasting marriage.

“We’ve never had too many arguments. I just tell him I’m the boss,” Margaret said.

Both are keen golfers and Margaret has won many trophies during her time on the greens, among them the 1990 Kareela Salver in Sydney and the 1995 Otatara Trophy from Invercargill in New Zealand.

However, Margaret says, John is now the better golfer and that golf is one of the reasons they moved to the South Coast.

“My eldest sister, Betty Edgar, owned land down here in Batemans Bay and she was also a golfer,” she said.

“We came down here a few times and enjoyed it, so in 1995, when we retired, we moved here.”

The Nollers can often be found driving their golf buggy and enjoying their retirement on Catalina Country Club golf course.

They celebrated their wedding anniversary with friends and family at the Catalina Country Club on August 30.