Since they first holidayed at Yarrawonga Holiday Park in 1976, the Longridges of Croydon in Melbourne have spent 48 Easters and 45 Christmases at the park.
It was through relations that Gordon and Ann Longridge chose to holiday in Yarrawonga.
“My mother Mavis Taylor lived here and left Yarrawonga at age 16 and there was Mavis Taylor, an aunty. Mavis was well-known in town for sending clothing to East Timor,” Gordon explained to the Yarrawonga Chronicle.
Mavis, a former haberdasher, was made a national living treasure for her humanitarian effort to help East Timor, sending 21 big containers of household goods including clothing to the war-torn country.
The Longridges have three children and seven grandchildren. From their caravan/tarpaulin campsite close to the mighty Murray River, Gordon pointed and said: “Our daughter Liz (Sayers) got married just over there on the grass. Isabelle (Warren) from Belle’s Café married them. She’s fabulous.”
Liz married Jason in 2019, the couple having met while holidaying at Yarrawonga Holiday Park. “I’m up to 37 Christmases and 36 Easters,” Liz, from Diamond Creek, said. “It’s a great park. Everyone knows each other. It’s a real country town.”
Gordon, 73 and a retired Telstra technician, has seen plenty of changes in the holiday park and Yarrawonga over the past, near five decades.
“Yarrawonga Holiday Park has become much more family-friendly in the past 10 years,” Ann said. “Kids always have someone to play with and there’s always someone looking after them in terms of safety.”
The park is filled to capacity at present, with some 2,000 people holidaying on the site which has plenty to offer, including an excellent playground/splashpark facility.
“We love Yarrawonga and this park,” Gordon said. “It’s terrifically managed by Shaun and Michelle Driscoll.
“Our kids have always played the Easter Tennis Tournaments. Ann and I used to cycle over 100kms a day. The food outlets are good – we really like Burkes Hotel and the Bundalong Café.”
Yarrawonga’s growth was marvelled at by the Longridges. “The housing development has just been unbelievable – incredible,” Gordon said. “The town’s got to be congratulated.”
The last comment belonged to Ann. “I love reading the Yarrawonga Chronicle,” she told me. “It’s the first thing I do, buy the Chronicle to find out what’s been happening.” Good decision!