Ron Jones has lived at the Airport Tourist Village at Attwood for 16 years.
“It’s the best place I’ve ever lived in,” he admits cheerfully, standing on the porch of the cabin marked Ron’s Ranch with his beloved Carlton Football Club paraphernalia scattered inside and out and the rooftops of Gladstone Park shopping centre on the horizon.
Mr Jones lived in East Coburg for 37 years before his marriage broke up. He spent 20-something years as a postie and another 20 or so years working for a bakery loading trucks.
“I never liked work,” he says cheerfully, although he confesses he loved the walking and it was only the 5am start that put him off being a postie.
But splitting up with his wife meant splitting the assets and superannuation, leaving him with enough to buy his cabin and put about $100,000 into shares, the dividends from which now top up his pension.
“I’ve never been so well off in all my life,” Mr Jones says.
He plays bingo five times a week and has a community of permanent neighbours as well as a passing parade of temporary residents who use the caravan park to stay over when visiting or working in Melbourne.
There are about 70 permanent residents at the park, which is run by Leanne and Eugene Anderson, who have seen their share of Australia’s eclectic housing options on their journeys from the top end to the deep south.
The average age of permanent residents at Attwood is about 75, and people can either buy or rent the cabins, although the park owners maintain title over the land.
The Andersons work hard to blend the commercial side of their venture with the permanent community that has developed around them and, although some say our days as village people are dead, the Airport Tourist Village is living proof that people from all walks of life do very well getting along with each other as neighbours.
