The Jensen Family
We had holidayed in the Cairns area previously and enjoyed very much the relaxed atmosphere. Stan was looking for a promotion in the Ambulance and so it was the opportunity to become the O.I.C. of Edmonton Station in August, 1976.
We arrived with three of our children as the eldest son was left with friends to finish his high school exams.
This being only a 2 man station, Stan worked 6 days and had 8am to 5pm on a Sunday off. We always got in the car and visited the rainforest, waterfalls and the tropical locations (which were awesome for us as we had come from a Central Queensland dairy farming area).
The Edmonton Centre had sugar cane growing right up to our doors, with the sugar mill further up the road and railway lines past the centre for the locos carrying the cut cane to the Mill. When the Edmonton Mill closed down we had this beautiful land made into fruit and tropical trees, then came Sugar World and water slides.
Further up Mill Road was the Hambledon School that 3 of our children attended. Our eldest son went on a bus (caught each morning outside our door) to Gordonvale High School. Eventually, all four children attended this school. Many friendships were made through these years. Sports available were swimming, cricket, softball as well as Air Force Cadets.
The smell each morning of freshly baked bread from the bakery down the street was “heavenly”. Milk and bread were delivered throughout the early morning to any household who left a bucket out at their front door.
Stan’s work soon had us in the community raising money for ambulances. We ran a Bingo session at the centre every Friday night for 12 years. A “Fun Run”, of 5 miles, was held for a few years. It finished up at the Sugar Mill and the rest of the afternoon with stalls and fun events.
Stan enjoyed his work and did some relief work in Cairns and Gordonvale. Stan retired in the late 1990’s and we bought our forever home in the Edmonton area.
In 2010 Stan received the Citizen of the Year Award from Council.
Stan’s memory lives on in the Edmonton district as there is a plaque dedicated to him at the mound in Ravizza Park, a garden bench named after him at Hambledon House Community Centre and a memorial in the grounds of the Edmonton Ambulance Station.
In 1977 Hambledon School advertised for their first lot of Teacher-Aides and as I had been employed for 3 years previously, I became one of the first to work in the position. Thirty two years later I retired.
We very much kept ourselves involved with community helping (Hospital, Ambulance, Hambledon House Community Centre, Lions Club, Scope Club and Lifeline). This year will be 24 years I’ve been volunteering at Lifeline. The site of the current Lifeline store was once a Catholic School.
This area has grown so much with the canfields turned into housing. It remains as friendly today as it was all those years ago.