Life Story of Joan Heather Easton

As the three Stuart children approached the end of their schooling years, Ray and Joan started to merge into a different set of adventures. Joan excitedly launched herself in to the role of the Daily News Gold Coaster’s ‘Burleigh Bird’ in 1972, where she acted as a social reporter gathering the stories of people all throughout the town. The term ‘Burleigh Bird’ was given to her by a visiting exchange student from the USA, who saw that she was bringing news of “the warm heart of the Gold Coast’s social activities” to the readers of the paper. Joan loved this role, and stayed with it for four years. As Joan says, “I was just writing about things I knew and people wrote into me about the social news on the Gold Coast. I used to go around to the business and get all the information but these days you can just phone in!” To this day, her vibrant personality is fondly remembered by those who read her articles. In 1975, both Duncan and Julianne had graduated from high school and Philip was almost finished with his education. Ray and Joan had owned the newsagency for nearly thirty years, and were wanting to start to retire. It had always been their dream to travel the world, so that year they decided to put Philip in charge of the newsagency and went travelling around Europe. In order to see as much as the continent as possible the couple bought a Kombi van and spent four months exploring the United Kingdom and Europe. Once finished with their trip, they left the Kombi van in storage in Europe so that their daughter Julianne could use it for her travels the following year. Obviously, the holiday gave Joan and her husband the travel bug. In 1977, they decided to fully retire (Joan aged 56), selling the newsagency so that they could go over to America and Canada for a 12-month road-trip. This time they purchased a luxury motorhome with a shower and toilet so that they could fully immerse themselves in the luxury experience. Julianne joined her parents in the US in the October of that year, staying with them for over four months. After returning to Burleigh Heads in 1978, Joan and Ray bought yet another motorhome and toured their home country of Australia. While visiting Broome, NT, they decorated their van for the ‘Pearl Festival’ float procession and won a prize! Joan and her husband enjoyed the trip so much, that they decided to not come home and travelled the country yet again. All in all, Joan and Stuart travelled the world for around five or six years, enjoying their retirement and seeing both their home country and others. Once returning for good to their home on Burleigh Headland, life did not slow down for Joan. In 1984, she helped to found the board for the 4CRB Radio Station, where she stayed on as a board member, the publicity officer and community billboard announcer, which helped her to enter back into the world of journalism. She also was connected to the Television Ministry in ‘Meditation Medication with Reverend Derek Pryde and Friends’, a religious television programme. It was at this time that Joan and Ray’s children were starting to have children of their own. Life was definitely not slowing down for Joan!

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