Within four months of getting engaged, they were married, had boarded a ship to Australia and had begun a new life here.

Today, they've just celebrated their 60^th wedding anniversary and have lived in Nowra for 40 years.

The couple met in England in1957 when Anne was 17 and John was 21. John was a watchmaker and Anne was a hairdresser working in a nearby shop.

It wasn't long before the young couple started dating and their relationship survived John's two year national service. The best 21^st birthday gift came Anne's way in the form of an engagement ring and the couple married five weeks later.

When John had asked Anne's father for hand in marriage, the older man replied 'I've been expecting that'. But he didn't expect what followed.

John clearly recalls that on a Thursday lunchtime the pair was walking on Station Road in Harrow, England and he turned to Anne and said 'let's go to Australia'. She replied, 'okay.'

Anne said England was still pretty battered from wartime in the early 60s and the young couple was in search of adventure when they decided to take the plunge.

The pair told their shocked parents and soon set off to the other side of the world.

"It definitely surprised them but they say 'you shouldn't follow your kids around' and I think it works the other way round too," John said.

"Parents will drop off the perch at some point and they won't ask for permission for that," he chuckled.

They set sail for Australia six weeks after their wedding and six weeks later they landed. Their new reality suddenly set in.

"We got off at Pyrmont and thought, 'what have we done?'," Anne said.

"It hit us - we didn't know a soul, didn't have anywhere to live, we didn't have any money because it was a Sunday and we couldn't access it and Anzac Day was the next day. It was overwhelming."

They quickly picked themselves up though and settled into Gladesville for four years. A move to Orange for John's watchmaking job followed, which proved to be "a disaster" as drought gripped the town and the couple's savings ran dry.

An overzealous bank manager gave John a 100 pound overdraft - five times what he was making in a week. They moved to Wollongong and got a little flat at Figtree that had no storage. John went to Nock and Kirby's, a chain of hardware stores and asked for the cheapest wardrobe they had.

It came in at three pounds and five shillings - around $6 today.

"I said 'I'll take it but I want to pay it off'," John laughed.

They worked their way back up and later bought a house in Mangerton. They've seen many changes over the years in both Wollongong and Nowra, both going from country towns to major regional centres.

"The highway used to go down Kinghorne Street and it was single lane so there was a permanent traffic jam," John said.

"There was a little supermarket in the main street and when we arrived the second bridge was being built so we went there and had a walk on it.

"In Wollongong everybody worked at the steelworks and the town was absolutely booming. I used to work seven days a week. You couldn't keep up."

He described Woolworths and Coles with open counters and sandwich bars being like the five and dime stores of America, where everything was five or 10 cents.

While they were both busy with work, Anne was also an avid Girl Guides leader and held various roles over 50 years. When she gave up guiding in 2012, she looked for somewhere else to turn her attention.

Both Anne and John have spent the last 10 years transforming what's now the West Street Nowra Croquet Club. When they took on the project, the weeds were as tall as they were and it took two years just to get the lawn to a playing level.

The renovated the clubhouse and even in their 70s, they were laying new floors and masonite. Today, it's a close-knit club and members helped the couple celebrate their recent anniversary with a dinner at the Butter Factory.

"We don't have any family here so they really are our family," Anne said.

"They're beautiful people, every single one of them."

Now aged 81 and almost 85, Anne and John said the older they get, the faster time seems to go. A regular daytime nap schedule seems to speed things up too.

"When you get to our age the nanna nap is pretty important - you're unconscious for half the day," John laughed.

And through all the ups, downs, joys and challenges, Anne and John said they've always tried to work together and love each other through every hurdle.

A wise John added that going with the flow helps too.

"A husband has to be subservient," he jokes.