Love deeper than the ocean
A disfiguring shark attack turned Greg Pickering’s life upside down, leaving him to wonder if he would ever find love again. Yet his nightmare was also a blessing in disguise, writes
Greg Pickering’s eyes aren’t as good as they once were. In fact, Greg’s eyes haven’t been the same since he was savaged by what is believed to be a great white shark that bit his face and head while he was working as an abalone diver near Esperance, off Western Australia’s south coast, three years ago.
That he has any vision in either of his eyes is nothing short of a miracle, considering doctors removed a fractured shark tooth from his eye socket during a marathon 10-hour surgery after the near-fatal attack.
Yet he could see well enough to recognise the spark when he locked eyes on Rose Austgen, the woman who captured his heart even though he had given up hope of finding love again.
“It was instant,” says Greg, 58.
“As soon as I saw her for the first time – my eyes aren’t great – but I could see her smiling and straight away I knew it. It was love. I’ve never had that happen to me before.”
Greg and Rose are now engaged, with a wedding planned for November next year in Perth. Yet the story of their relationship is not just a love story. It’s also a story of endurance, perseverance and, ultimately, an unwavering belief in the power of love.
Rose admits she pinches herself sometimes to make sure it isn’t all a dream. At 61, almost three decades after she became a divorcée and with four adult children aged between 32 and 44 with her previous husband, she never expected to find love again, either. Her life revolved around early starts as a supermarket baker and spending time with her grandchildren.
That was until she read a newspaper interview in early 2015, featuring Greg, a father of four separated from his former wife. Greg talked about the months of recovery and rehabilitation from the shark attack and told how he was forced to return to work as an abalone diver to make ends meet.
He also joked his face was healing well, but potential partners were too scared to start a relationship because diving for abalone ranks as one of the most dangerous jobs in the world and they feared he’d be attacked again.
“I’ve got good scars on my shoulder and back and face. My face has healed up very well and women reckon I still look all right,” Greg said at the time.
“I’m happy about that. I thought my face would be permanently disfigured. I’m looking around for a nice lady. The biggest problem
I find with girls is they’re not that happy about abalone diving.”
Rose found an email address for Greg and contacted him, despite fearing he might think she was “crazy”.
“He sounded like a gentleman.
I had to contact him,” she says.
The first email exchange was a success. But, with Greg diving in
South Australia at the time and Rose living in Perth, their only contact for those first few months was online messages and phone conversations.
“For some reason that day, she read this article and took an interest in it. She thought maybe she should try and contact me. Rose still says there was something driving her, she knew she should do it,” Greg recalls.
“I got her email and I didn’t know, but I thought, ‘Oh, well, it can’t hurt to give it a shot and see what she’s like’.
“First, it was emails and then the phone. We’d have these long conversations. We’d talk for three hours at a time.”
The pair finally met when Greg’s diving stint in South Australia, which included filming for the cable TV blockbuster, Abalone Wars, finished.
Despite his ailing eyesight, Greg sensed the connection instantly when they finally saw each other for the first time following months of phone conversations. “We met up and it went very well from there,” he says. “We saw each other all the time and got on so well.
“It’s definitely a second chance. To meet your soul mate – well, that’s what it’s all about. We both have been through different experiences in life. We really want to make this work.
“I thought the chances weren’t high that I’d ever meet anyone again. But Rose was keen on me straight away and it was the same for me.”
Fast forward a year and the pair moved in together, still smitten. Rose had told Greg she didn’t want to marry again, but when he popped the question several months ago, she only needed a moment to decide.
“He’s the most wonderful person. He’s so caring and thoughtful. I didn’t think I’d walk down the aisle, but here we are planning a wedding,”
Rose says.
Greg admits he was a nervous wreck before the proposal.
“I made it as much of a surprise as I could. We had our meals and I’d organised for the waiter to bring a plate out before dessert with a top over it. There was a ring inside there and written on a plate in chocolate were the words, ‘Will you marry me?’,” he says. “I was pretty nervous, that’s for sure. But, luckily, she said yes.”
Rose recalls the magic evening with relish, saying, “We were so nervous and excited I didn’t even take a photo.”
The couple is yet to finalise a venue for the wedding in November 2017, but both agree it will be somewhere by the beach.
“We definitely want to get married on the beach. When my marriage split up, I always said, if I ever got married again it would be a beach wedding,” says Rose.
I heard the sound, the trashing sound of teeth on bone.
She is planning to buck tradition and wear an elegant, flowing silver dress. Her two sisters, Ulrike and Anita, will flank her as bridesmaids.
For Greg, there was no other option than a beach wedding, either – he’s spent his entire life by the beach, freediving and spearfishing since he was a boy growing up in WA. And it was his extensive ocean knowledge and experience that undoubtedly saved his life from the jaws of the suspected great white shark.
In the wake of the 2013 shark attack, he told the Seven Network’s Sunday Night program that he used 40 years of diving experience to hold his breath and slowly rise to the surface, despite the ocean turning red around him from the blood gushing from his horrific injuries.
To this day, he says he never saw the shark coming – but remembers clearly the sound of teeth grating on the bones of his face and chest.
Incredibly, it was the second time Greg had survived a shark attack. In 2004, he was bitten on the leg by a 1.5m bronze whaler while in waters near Cervantes, north of Perth, as he went to assist a mate who he was spearfishing with.
“I heard the sound [in 2013], the thrashing sound of teeth on bone. And I remembered the sound from the last time I was bitten,” Greg says. “I thought, ‘That is probably a shark’. But I didn’t see it – I heard the attack.”
Greg credits the bubbles from his severed scuba air hose as a reason why the shark unexpectedly let go.
“It [the shark] suddenly stopped and let me go. I don’t know why, but I definitely see it as a second chance. God has given me a second chance, there is no doubt about that,” he says.
He made it to the surface and got back to his boat before the great white could return. Greg and his co-worker used a roll of duct tape and a towel to bandage his shredded face.
What followed was a marathon sea and land journey, as the pair rushed from the remote diving location in the Cape Arid National Park, 125km east of Esperance, to get Greg to hospital before he bled to death.
The WA Department of Fisheries ordered the shark be killed, but the predator was not sighted again and the order was rescinded when it was no longer considered a threat to school-holiday campers in the area.
Greg continues to dive for abalone today. There is a lucrative industry for the prized seafood, which is mostly exported to Asia, and he hopes a few more years will see them set them up for retirement, when they plan to buy a home together. Rose worries when her new-found love is away, but supports his decision to keep diving.
“I don’t think about it, to be honest. I don’t worry when he goes diving because I know he makes sure everything is as safe as possible. He doesn’t take risks,” she says.
“I met him knowing that he’s an abalone diver and I wouldn’t want to stop him. It’s up to him when he wants to stop.”
She says she’s reminded of Greg’s shark attack and miracle survival every time she looks at the scars that he will carry for the rest of her life. Yet with her characteristic optimism, Rose is able to see the bright side and even jokes that it “gives him character”.
She also admits she hasn’t swum in the ocean since watching Jaws. She grew up miles from the ocean, in country WA. Eventually, her family moved to Perth, where Rose finished her schooling. There were visits to the beach, but she rarely took the plunge.
These days, she still prefers a pool to the ocean and admits a love of the deep blue is about the only thing she and Greg don’t have in common. “I don’t like sharks and just about everything else that’s under the water,” she says.
Happily, the couple has reached a compromise for the honeymoon they are planning in 2017. “We want to go around Australia together,” Greg says.
“We’ll rarely be far from the coast, so I’ll be happy. And most of the time we’ll be on dry land, so Rose will be happy, too. I think it’s going to be great fun.”
It’s up to him when he wants to stop diving.