Farewell to Rainbow Beach from the Grants

Goodbye all, Peter and I have sold our house and we are moving to Bundaberg.

It is with mixed feelings that we look back on our 28 years here in Rainbow Beach. It may be a much-used and time-weary cliché but, oh so, so true.

We have some lovely friends that we will be sad to leave behind; and, yet we are excited about our new beginnings.

We arrived in 1993 with 3 of our children – 2 of them in primary school – to open a fruit and vegie store.

After coming from a very active community life in Gayndah, we jumped in feet first to the Chamber of Commerce and the school P&C Association. Peter was also an inaugural member of the Rainbow Beach Lions Club.

When the Business and Tourism Association was formed, Peter took great delight in helping set up the tracks through the Cooloola National Park for the annual 4WD Rally.

With his experience in TV antenna installation, Peter was asked by a couple of the boat hire companies to improve the TV reception on their boats. After trialling many of the marine antennas on the market, Peter concluded that there were no suitable antennas for the Rainbow Beach/Fraser Island/Tin Can Bay areas.

He then designed one that worked extremely well in the local area. Thus, the Saturn Antenna was born.

Caravanners coming into the caravan parks in town soon learnt that this “boat” antenna worked a treat for them in this area – and around Australia. This began our 22 years of travelling to boat and caravan shows around the countryside.

We always felt “Coming Home” to Rainbow Beach was sometimes the best part of our travels.

Meantime, I enjoyed returning to my chosen career with a few years of Supply Teaching in Tin Can Bay and Rainbow Beach. Funnily enough, Tin Can Bay school stopped ringing for me to come in for a day’s teaching when I told them I was unavailable because I was in Cairns/Albury/Melbourne/Perth.

Thank you, all the residents and visitors, for your support in reading the articles I wrote for this paper during our travelling times.

I enjoyed learning and writing about the small towns that we passed through over the years and it was so much fun to write for our two themed years – the Bakery Run and the Pub Crawl. The Saturn Antenna van was pictured outside many Pubs and Bakeries around Australia.

We have seen Rainbow Beach grow from a sleepy beach holiday place to a bustling, holiday destination.

When we arrived, there were no church buildings, no Police Beat, no ambulance station nor Community Centre. Now, Rainbow Beach has all these facilities along with a new Fire and SES centre.

Wow, Rainbow, you have matured.

But this is not really goodbye. It is truly SEE YA. We will be back for visits.

Peter and Margaret Grant (Saturn Antennas)