A family home with heart.
Sixteen years back now, surfing’s famous Wright family, daddy Rob, Mama Fiona and kids, Mikey, Tyler, Kirby and Owen moved from Culburra on the NSW South Coast to the warm-water waves of Byron shire, setting up on almost seven acres a little south of Lennox Point.
The joint at 5 Skennars Road, Skennars Head, was built back when the little sub-division was all undulating green fields and long before the place got turned into the usual shitbox housing development that pockmarks Australia. They don’t just hurt the eyes and squeeze the bank account but each squared off, crudely built structure ruins the souls contained within.
Here, a family home with heart.
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The place got listed for sale one month back when Rob Wright’s dementia got so bad his boy Owen, who’d been caring for him for the last five years, had to put him into a dementia unit.
In a post on Instagram, Owen, Rob’s favourite kid, wrote of the struggle of seeing a beloved parent disappearing before your eyes.
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“He’s surfed here forever. Every morning. He was still surfing here three years ago. And five years ago he got diagnosed with dementia. He hid it before that. He already knew before that, but he hid it from us.
“But we found out about it five years ago and he was surfing all the way up until two years ago. And today we’ve come down to Boulders to say see you later to Boulders, because we’re off to the Home today. We’re taking him to the nursing home to get some better care.
“We fought pretty hard, didn’t we Poppy, to keep you out of there. That was your wishes. You said that to me years ago, ‘I don’t want to go in there. I don’t ever want to go into one of those places.’ So we fought pretty hard to keep you out. And we did pretty well, I reckon.
“Because the condition he’s in now is non-verbal, can barely walk, doesn’t get out of bed much. You know, dementia can be pretty messy and incontinence is a part of that, not knowing how to feed yourself. Losing bodily functions. That’s something I wasn’t aware of when this started. I thought it was just memory. And seeing how far it goes is quite shocking, but we did our best to keep him out of the Home for as long as we could.
“It definitely took a toll on me personally and emotionally, but you do anything for your mums and dads. And I guess today is a big day for us, hey Poppy? We’ll put you into the Home, get some care, get some nurses around and maybe meet some new people.”
Listed with hopes of three mill or so, the estate just secured four-and-a-half million dollars, well north of the expected three, three-and-a-half.
As O said to his Dad in the same post,
“What a journey mate, what a journey. So, it’s been a pleasure. It’s been a wild ride, for sure.”
And from Owen’s book Against the Water,
“That relationship (with Dad) was the reason I surfed, it was the reason I pushed, it was the reason I rebelled, it was the reason I pushed again. It’s part of the reason I’ve retired. And it’s part of the reason I made it back out of the head injury.”
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Thats all fkn teriffic but most of us suckers live in one because surfing came first instead of toeing the party line
Who are the zips, it sounds like a 70’s shitty punk band
How times have changed, back in the day to get to ballina u crossed an old timber bridge at nth creek that came in handy when they stuck steel posts at the entrance to stop cars crossing in around 1977 or about so when u wanted to go ballina on your unregisterd yamy 500 and the cops were chasing you they coudnt cross it, i have memories of waving to them from the other side of the bridge, there was a dirt road to boulders and skeeners head and the only land 4 sale was old dairy bails on 5acres or so for sweet f all, rambling a bit here but yeah good luck to them, dementia isnt fun to deal with..
Breath is gnarly and really nice water footage
What’s the alternative domicile?
My sympathies to Tyler.
Obviously, something will be disappointing for her.
Two titles, rips more than most guys, disappointed yea na
you obviously missed the point.
at first I read Two titles as Two tities
4 and half mill is cheap.
and to be honest, all the young tradie families living in these legloland estates seem to be doing fine on a soul level.
Kids in school, surf easily accessible, making a good living etc etc, Friday beers down the bowlo etc etc.
I wouldn’t feel too sorry for anyone lucky enough to have a piece of dirt and a roof in this part of the world.
7 acres of coastal land- surprised they sold it.
That lad will take his share of the 4 mill and make make another couple mill building or flipping properties.
Also, palliative care is extremely expensive. They’ll be able to use that cash without any of the kids having to dip into the piggy bank.
You arnt an accountant by chance, my non finances are a real mess and coud sure use some expert advice
Buy low. Sell high.
Do NOT confuse it with Buy High, Sell Low. Too many people have made that mistake.
Unlimited forever work for the tradies , those places look good but are built to break.
Lennox is in Ballina Shire – just sayin’
Don’t let the nursing home know about your financial windfall O dog. Next thing you know there will be all these extras on the bill. Extra napkins-$10, Broken drinking glass- $50, Band aids- $15, Extra care- $500.
Much cheaper to have a bottle of S8 drugs handy than ending up a walking corpse amongst other walking corpses + u go out with a big smile
“Derek Reily, Human Torpedo!”
Quite often ya ol’ pal Dez is “truly packin death”.
Xox
Coauthored by Martin Mischkulnig. Looks interesting
Also this video essay https://youtu.be/qxqL-7j4YCE?si=ZQFWo5KzJ4DdjTZ7
Got nothing against a small town
still hayseed enough to say
look who’s in the big town
but my beds in a small town
and that’s good enough for me
J.C.M.
I’m keen to hear this story, sounds fun.
Are you on the right page?
You touched on the “soul” destroying estates . Gotta be a story there. Maybe farm it out to a journalist
Just got back from a weekend hit n run on the ‘burra with the fams. Ol’ Gil got a couple of fun ones!
This story is sweet and sour, I like it here.
We try to find a nice balance. Just ignore the conflicts about the new Trump circus.
Xox