This Two of Us article, first published four years ago, is being re
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article → publish → Us
Richard Morecroft, former ABC news presenter, journalist and photographer, met Alison Mackay in Far North Queensland more than 30 years ago when he was on holiday and she was working on a diving boat.
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she → meet → boat
He didn’t know then that she was a dab hand with a sledgehammer.
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she → know → sledgehammer
I met Alison in 1990 when I was on holiday at Cape Tribulation in Far North Queensland.
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I → meet → Queensland
I booked a scuba-diving expedition and Alison was working on the boat.
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Alison → book → boat
We started chatting and I could see she had a fine, sparking mind and shared my passion for the natural environment.
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she → start → environment
When I helped her carry the equipment up the beach, I realised how strong she was; it was very heavy.
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it → help → beach
I asked her to join me for dinner and then we played pool: she was an elegant player, ruthlessly efficient.
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she → ask → pool
We didn’t think we’d see each other again since she was heading back to the UK; she gave me her parents’ address there, though.
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she → think → address
“One Valentine’s Day, I gave her a sledgehammer, which she wielded with glee and huge impact.”
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she → give → glee
We exchanged letters and, in late 1990, I visited her in England.
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I → exchange → England
We had a wonderful few weeks together and, by then, I was very keen.
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I → have → weeks
When I returned to Australia, we kept writing; our rule was that it was only to be letters – they’re more considered than phone calls – and only written in fountain pen.
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they → return → pen
We still have those letters more than 30 years later.
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We → have → letters
In 1992, Alison moved to Sydney so we could give our relationship a proper go.
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we → move → go
She moved in with me in my old terrace in Potts Point.
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She → move → Point
One day, I came back from a few hours at work and she’d moved all the bedroom furniture – including the bed, which she’d taken apart and rebuilt – into the office and the office furniture into the bedroom, completely transforming both spaces.
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she → come → spaces
It was jaw-dropping.
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It → drop → ?
Later, we renovated an old factory building in Enmore and Alison took to that with gusto.
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Alison → renovate → gusto
One Valentine’s Day, I gave her a sledgehammer, which she wielded with glee and huge impact.
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she → give → glee
She used to be a competitive equestrian and motorbike rider until she broke her back in a horse-riding accident in 2002.
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she → use → 2002
It was very difficult for her to adjust to not being able to do things she used to do.
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she → adjust → things
In her typically resourceful way, she shifted her focus to other activities, such as painting.
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she → shift → painting
When Alison was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2019, it was deeply worrying, but she faced it with extraordinary resilience.
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she → diagnose → resilience
Even through chemotherapy, she was in the studio [at the couple’s home in St Georges Basin, on the NSW south coast] whenever she could be, painting, reading, doing stuff.
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she → paint → stuff
We share a passion for the arts, especially painting, and outdoor activities, such as scuba-diving and rock-climbing, and although we do so much together, we’re also both happily independent.
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we → share → much
From 2010 to 2012, when I was recording Letters and Numbers for SBS in Melbourne, we spent months apart.
When Alison isn’t around, I do think about what her perspective would be and that’s helpful.
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that → record → months
Neither of us wants to be married; this means every day we are choosing to be together, without any sense of obligation.
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we → want → obligation
I love Alison’s intelligence, sense of adventure, creativity and determination.
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I → love → adventure
When I met Richard, I thought he was an interesting person who didn’t fit the typical Australian mould – so passionate about the arts and the environment.
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who → meet → arts
I didn’t see a future in it, though, since he was going back to Sydney and me to England.
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he → see → England
But I did think it was lovely that you could go halfway around the world to somewhere remote and meet someone who was excited about the same things as you.
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who → think → you
When I moved to Australia, I knew very quickly that this was a serious relationship.
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this → move → Australia
We began looking for something interesting to renovate and found an old factory in Enmore.
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We → begin → Enmore
We were owner-builders and worked on it for three years.
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We → work → years
That it was fun to renovate a derelict warehouse in the early stages of a relationship, despite the madness, was a good sign.
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was → renovate → madness
In 1993, we wrote a book together [with Ken Campbell] on playing pool.
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we → write → pool
It set the groundwork for future projects, in terms of criticism.
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It → set → criticism
We agreed if you said something wasn’t working, you had to suggest something else; we’ve stuck with that.
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we → agree → that
After I broke my back, art – my painting and Richard’s photography – became the biggest thing jointly in our lives.
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art → break → lives
…and 23 more, not listed.
The Aporia
