At Home With... PIP AND CHARLES WOODWARD

At Home With... PIP AND CHARLES WOODWARD

THEIRS IS A PARTNERSHIP MORE THAN 45 YEARS IN THE MAKING

Pip and Charlie Woodward sit side-byside on the lounge of their Esplanade apartment, their backs turned away from the breathtaking views. Pip has her feet tucked underneath her, and holds Charlie’s hand. Theirs is a partnership more than 45 years in the making.

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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“We knew Liz personally,” Charlie says, referring to their friend and co-founding member of COUCH, Liz Plummer .

“There was an article about her in the newspaper one day, pleading for the local business community to assist.”

It was 2006, and Liz Plummer was battling breast cancer. Treatment took her away from her family for several weeks at a time, due to the lack of a radiation oncology unit at the Cairns Hospital, and Liz was championing the cause for better facilities for Cairns.

“We called her the very next day,” furthers Pip. “She told us she had plenty of patients call her, but we were the first business owners. We asked what we could do.”

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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An extensive fundraising and media campaign meant that in 2007, the State Government could no longer ignore the snowballing campaign, and an $8.3million commitment to extend the hospital was made. This included a much needed radiation oncology unit.

“The ironic part of it all is, of course, that I’ve now become a patient of the unit,” Charlie reveals.

Pip continues, “It was April when last year the doctors found something suspicious. However, he’d had a stroke at the same time, so we had to assist him with the recovery from the stroke before we could focus on the cancer,” Pip’s pragmatism response is common of those with nursing experience.

“One of the wonderful achievements of COUCH is that, if the unit wasn’t here, patients would have to be away from Cairns for eight weeks,” Charlie explains. “The diagnosis is one of the reasons we now live here.

We left our family home of 22 years to be closer to the hospital.” “Of course, as soon as we saw this view, we thought ‘I think we’ll buy this’.”

He stands up and walks excitedly toward the balcony. “I’ll show you how much we’ve downgraded. Here is my cellar,” Charlie smiles, pointing to a modest bar fridge containing a dozen or so bottles of wine. “At the other house, I had a cellar that was almost the size of this unit!”

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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I enquire about their first meeting. “Charlie was on a working holiday in England in the early 70’s when we met. Pip offers, “I was a nurse in London. I had done some travel; I worked in Denmark doing orthopaedics, and then joined the Navy just as we met.”

And we got off the plane, I still remember the steam coming up from the tarmac. It was quite a learning experience!”

Charlie explains, “When we were travelling around Europe, I could see that Cairns had better beaches than anywhere we visited. I realised that Cairns had a future in tourism.

Now, this was Cairns in the 70’s; it was vastly different to what it is now.” “Back then, the city had no hotels rated higher than a 2-Star.”

“People would raise their eyebrows at me and say, ’You’re having army ducks going through the rainforest?’”

Pip laughs. “I’m sure they thought we were nuts!”

Tropic Wings Coaches, the Butterfly Sanctuary, Wildlife Habitat and The Dome followed in the growth of this enormously successful family business.

“The only real failure we had on the journey was Blue Sky Brewery,” Charlie laments. “It was a pity; all the timing was wrong. Still, we’ve been very fortunate. Unless you have some failures, you don’t appreciate the successes.”

Pip turns our attention to three traditional spears that are mounted on the balcony wall. “These spears were presented to us at the 40th Anniversary by one of dancers from the Pamagirri Dance troupe. The spears symbolise our three boys.”

A pride appears on Pip’s face as the conversation turns to their three sons. “We started the business when our oldest child was just 6 months old.

Those boys grew up at Rainforestation. It was an unlimited playground - except for the house, which was tiny! It was one of the 1950’s workers cottages, with a tiny bathroom, and the three of them would get in the shower and almost not be able to move,” she recalls fondly.

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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“It’s so wonderful to have them all involved in the family business now.” “And the good thing is they are all very different, so they have found their niche in different areas of the business, ” Charlie offers.

“Cairns is looking great, isn’t it?” Pip declares.

“From up here, we can see the lights at night - they are just beautiful! And now, with the Munro Martin Parklands, it’ s made the city even more gorgeous.”

We comment on the 14th birthday of the Cairns Lagoon and Esplanade redevelopment, as the conversation turns to the Botanic Gardens. “That’s a fantastic drive through there,” Charlie enthuses.

“The new Wellness Centre will have the same feeling when it’s built, with meandering gardens throughout the property.” Charlie is referring to the next project for COUCH - the construction of a Health Care Precinct on land donated to the charity by the Woodward Family.

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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Pip directs us to a plaque hanging on the wall in the hallway, as she invites Charlie to comment. “In 2011, I chartered a boat and invited a group of local tour operators to join me in a dive of the wreck of Yongala, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of it’s sinking. My great grandmother was onboard, and she went down with the ship.”

The SS Yongala was a luxury steamship en route from Melbourne to Cairns, when it met its fate off the coast of Ayr during a cyclone on 24 March, 2011. The lives of all 122 passengers were lost.

Charlie furthers, “Yasi had just ripped through the area, and everyone involved made a donation to the Yasi fund.”

That day, the tourism industry contingent scattered 122 orchid blooms over the wreck site.”

Movement through the vast windows draws my attention to some movement across the ocean, as the day’s tour boats return to port after a day on the reef.

“The boats are coming in,” Pip declares, with a smile. “Wine time!”

At Home with Pip and Charles Woodward

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