Christine and Ian

Christine and Ian first joined up as foster carers in Adelaide in 1979.

While they lived in Adelaide they had a few children come and stay for a short time and they decided this was something they would love to do on a regular basis, but in 1982 they moved to Woomera and were unable to foster due to living too far away.

“After a few years in Woomera we saw that ACCA (Aboriginal Child Care Agency – now known as AFSS) in Port Augusta was desperately looking for carers, so we approached them and told them we were interested. This was about 1989, and since that time we’ve had dozens (I couldn’t put a figure on it) of Aboriginal children stay with us, from emergency to short term placements,” says Christine.

“In 1993 we were asked to have a family of four children on an emergency placement, which we readily accepted. The youngest was five months and the oldest was seven. That request turned into a long term placement for these children and we even took on another child born to the same family making it five.

“When we left Port Augusta to come to Port Lincoln there was no ACCA organisation here so we had to leave them and transfer to Families SA in Port Lincoln. ACCA had been a wonderful and supporting agency so it was a bit sad to leave them. The main reason for us leaving Port Augusta was to be with family in Port Lincoln. Ian’s mother’s family were born at the Poonindie Mission and his brother lives here so it was sort of a natural progression. Ian also wanted to get into the fishing industry to follow his love of fishing.”

And today? The five month old baby is now 21 and getting married in January next year. He’s joined the army and is now based in Brisbane. Three of the other children have children of their own and still live in Port Lincoln.

“We can’t imagine not doing fostering, it just seems so natural, and I couldn’t think of not having children living with us,” says Christine.

“We often meet some of the children we’ve fostered and it’s great to see how much they’ve grown and changed over the years. We prefer long term fostering as these children become part of your family and life. We have three long term children living with us now and we can’t imagine doing anything else. It can be a very hard and frustrating journey, but it’s so worth it. We hope to have many years ahead of us with our foster children.”