FOREVER MY CASTLE
She was born in the living room and has been there ever since. After 81 years, Pat’s moving out of home
A MOMENT in Gold Coast history is coming to pass — Patricia Henricksen is moving out of home. Miss Henricksen was born in this Southport house 81 years ago when it was surrounded by fields of sugarcane. She’s slept in the same bedroom ever since. Now she says the time is right to move into an aged care home. She’s taking a lifetime of memories with her. “It was better than any castle,” she said. “I have wonderful memories here and it’s going to break my heart for it to be sold.”
IT’S the end of an era for Southport woman Patricia Henricksen.
The 81-year-old has moved out of her family home and is selling up after living there since she was born in the liv- ing room on a winter’s day in 1935.
“There wasn’t a hospital back then and Mum was in the garden and had a pain,” Miss Henricksen said. “She came inside and I was born.
“I never married so I’ve had the same room all these years.”
Miss Henricksen’s parents bought the brick and weatherboard house in the early 1930s when the buildings and bustle of Southport were yet to sprout from the landscape of canefields, dirt roads and timber pubs.
Then, the Johnston St home was nestled on 16 acres of sprawling farmland, where Miss Henricksen and her older brothers, Martin and Searle, would ride horses and feed them on the leafy sugarcane.
The popular Pier Theatre had a cafe and indoor golf course and was a busy hub for locals.
Life was slower then, Ms Henricksen said.
“There was nothing here, just dirt roads with laneways while people had horses and buggies,” she said. “A lot of the kids had horses and we used to ride bareback.
“I used to ride out to Nerang and over to Main Beach – we went over the old Jubilee Bridge right up to The Spit.”
It was a time when Joseph Lyons, Earle Page and Robert Menzies had terms as Australian prime ministers and the seaside village was a favourite destination for Queensland governor, Sir Anthony Musgrave.
Just up the road from the Henricksen family home is a park named after Patricia’s mother, Dolly.
“Her name was Olive Charlotte but everyone called her Dolly because she was so beautiful,” she said.
Her mother was 38 when she married Martin Henricksen, who used to hire out horses for rides between Narrow Neck and The Spit.
Her grandfather, Burnett,
may have been Southport’s first town crier in the 1890s, spruiking local business and events to all who cared to listen.
“He used to tell everyone about the Gold Coast I would suspect,” Miss Henricksen said.
“He would tell you what was on at the pier and if the theatre had a lovely lunch on.”
Despite her move into an aged-care home, Miss Henricksen said she would always call 86 Johnston St her home.
“It was better than any castle,” she said. “I have wonderful memories there and it’s going to break my heart for it to be sold.”
The house, on a 1102sq m block with two street frontages, has one bedroom, a sun room, living room and kitchen. Timber floors, high ceil- ings and casement windows also feature throughout.
Hartnell Realty Ashmore principal Louise Hartnell is marketing the property in conjunction with Doug Hull Real Estate principal Doug Hull.
“It’s very unique to get something like this and they don’t come up very often,” Ms Hartnell said. “We’ve had a lot of interest from developers but also from buyers who are keen to live in it.”
The auction is on May 6.