“I love it. I love the joint.’’
Terry Bradbury doesn’t need much time to reply when asked to rate Campbelltown out of 10 as a place to live, work and play.
“We obviously can’t give it an 11, but I certainly give it a 9,’’ he says.
“We have all the facilities here from a wonderful art gallery, major hospitals to sport grounds and cinemas – I’m a great supporter of the Dumaresq Street Cinema, I love what they do there.
“It is such a great place to be,’’ he tells the South West Voice in Macarthur, moments after receiving a Jubilee Award from the Mayor of Campbelltown, Cr Paul Hawker.
[It’s only fair to point out at this stage that “live, work and play’’ is one of the mayor’s favourite clichés when referring to our town.]
But back to the legend himself, Terry Bradbury, and why he received such an hour, along with 50 other local heroes.
To qualify for a Jubilee Award you have to have lived in Campbelltown at least 50 years and have contributed to making the place a little better.
More than 40 years with the mighty Campbelltown Harlequins rugby club, in just about every role, certainly qualifies Terry Bradbury for a Jubilee Award and surely much, much more.
Young Terry first arrived here with his family in November 1962 as an 11 year old boy.
He was born in inner city Redfern, and then the family moved to Surry Hills.
When they had to move again, his father, a printer with the Telegraph newspaper, decided to join the exodus from the inner city to the suburbs, found a house in Ingleburn and the rest is history.
Terry has great memories of his childhood in Ingleburn, where his family still lives.
“It was fantastic, we actually had hot and cold running water,’’ he says.
[social_quote duplicate=”no align=”default”]“Growing up in Ingleburn was great. I found mates who were very accepting.’’[/social_quote]
Terry was one of the inaugural members of Ingleburn RSL’s rugby league club and he also dabbled in cricket – “they were the only two sports we had in those days,’’ he says.
“I met my wife at Ingleburn High School, she knocked the socks off me as a 12 year old.
“I went home one day at the age of 15 and said to my mother: I’m going to marry that girl!
“And mum said, that’s a nice idea, would you like a cup of tea.
“We got married 44 years ago, I was 20 and Judith was 19.’’
Judith played a pivotal role in Terry ending up with the union lads at the Quinnies.
“When we got married, my mate next door was playing with the Harlequins and he suggested I try out for them.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I thought, I’d do it for a year and then go back to rugby league.’’[/social_quote]
But the best laid plans of mice and men always go astray, as the saying goes.
“One night we went out with the Harlequins and my wife was along with me and she couldn’t believe how much we drank and didn’t get into fights like we did with the league boys, so she said to me, you can stay with the Harlequins,’’ recalls Terry.
That was more than 40 years ago and he’s still there now, one of three generations of the Bradbury family, with both his sons and a 16 year old grandson involved one way or another with the iconic rugby club of Campbelltown.
“It’s just a great club, I love it,’’ Terry says.
Like most people in their sixties, Terry Bradbury is still working, these days as a real estate agent with the Ray White Macarthur Group.
In other words he still gets around, on top of having been around for 54 years, so we ask him, how’s Campbelltown going right now?
“As a local real estate agent I don’t like to see development for development’s sake,’’ he says.
“I have seen some development applications for apartments, there’s one for 600 units down the road, I’m not enamoured of some of those sort of things, but progress is progress.
“We’ve got to keep the Scenic Hills because we’ll have no lungs here.
“We’ve got to plan these things as best as we can.’’
Either way, Terry Bradbury is a very proud local, who is still making a contribution to making the joint better.
And he was really happy to receive the Jubilee Award from the mayor.
[social_quote duplicate=”no” align=”default”]“I’m stoked,’’ he says.[/social_quote]
“I think it’s great council doing these awards, it’s good to acknowledge people who nine times out of 10 don’t do it for the recognition.’’
