Providing a lifeline
We live here ‘cos we love it!
I HAVE lived in Toowoomba for about 25 years and before that I lived in Sydney.
The reason why I moved to Toowoomba was because I had a boyfriend who was from here, so I moved up and started working as a teacher in the Catholic education system.
I do miss Sydney quite a bit. I miss my family mostly, I have a large family down there.
Toowoomba is an amazing place to raise your children.
Other great aspects of the city are the fantastic facilities and schools and the convenience of everything being easy to access.
Toowoomba has grown a lot since I have been here with its art scene and shopping expanded quite significantly recently.
One of my most memorable moments as a teacher was when the drought broke when I was teaching at Clifton in the early 90s.
Some of the children who I was teaching had never seen rain before. It was exciting for me to watch these kids enjoy the rain and it was a new experience to experience rural life.
It was rewarding being able to watch the students be ready for the next step when they go to high school.
In my spare time, I enjoy bush-walking through Redwood Park and Jubilee Park because they are a bit of hard work but those parks have nice scenery.
Peter Turnbull
I MOVED to Toowoomba from Rockhampton about 24 years ago when I got transferred here.
I worked in the insurance industry in wholesaling insurance.
As soon as the opportunity rose to transfer to Toowoomba, I jumped at it because my family originally comes from Goondiwindi and the opportunity to come back closer to home was too good to refuse.
One of the great things about Toowoomba is the weather. You get to experience four seasons here. In Rockhampton there are only two seasons, hot and bloody hot.
Hope Horizon’s president Kate Beyer is my daughter and when she put the call out when I was in the process of retiring, I thought this would be a great thing for me to do.
I enjoy gardening in my spare time with my interest in native Australian species.
My mother used to be a native plant breeder and would travel extensively to find rare plants to breed them.
Kate Beyer
I USED to live in Rockhampton before I moved to the Toowoomba area about 15 years ago.
We decided to move here to be closer to our family. It also helped that Toowoomba has a lovely climate.
I have been a nurse in cancer care for more than 20 years and started Hope Horizons about three years ago.
The reason why I established Hope Horizons was to help cancer patients gain access to extra services such as seeing a physiotherapist.
My career as a nurse allowed me to help people and provided an opportunity to experience a lot of variety.
A highlight of my career was being able to deliver the first stem cell transfer at the Mater Private Hospital.
It was really exciting. Being involved with something like that makes you feel very motivated.