45 Hale Street, Townsville

The year was 1985. I had come back from my last posting to Greece. My Saudi boss, reluctant to let me go,
had promised to let me work for him from Australia, and so I bought this property on the edge of Townsville's
CBD, which was going to be both office and home to me. I bought it for something like $50,000-plus but then
left town as the promised work did not materialise. I hung onto the place for some years as a rental property
but the trouble with maintenance and deafulting tenants was just too much bother and so I sold it in April 1998
for a mere $87,000 - hardly the sort of rags-to-riches story so often touted by real estate agents.

In February 2011 I discovered it for sale on the internet at $525,000 and quite deservedly so because the new
owners have given it a very extensive and beautiful make-over.

The new owners did not change much of its outside appearance apart from giving it a 'cool' blue-and-white paint job.

However, the inside has been quite stunningly renovated. The humble verandah has become an extension of the living-space.

The front room, once meant to have been my office, is now a beautifully appointed lounge.

Behind the lounge is another sitting-room. Its feature is the silky-oak room divider, repainted a gleaming white.

The garden has the city skyline as its backdrop, illustrating how close this ideal 'city pad' is to Townsville's mall and CBD.