Lives of Locals: Stories from the Central Coast

LOREN NOBLE

May, 2020.

Loren was born into the worst year of the Great Depression. It was 1932 in Scotland, and these were hard times. Like so many other families, Loren’s was very poor because many jobs were lost and it was hard for people to earn money.

When she was seven, World War II broke out and the Germans launched an air raid on Glasgow. Loren and her family had to take cover in a cellar across the road from their house. When the building started to burn, her father had no way of putting out the fire because the town’s water pipes had been destroyed. They ran to an Anderson shelter – a little bunker half-buried in the ground with a curved roof covered in turf – an ingenious design, built to hold six people. Twelve squeezed in. The bombing raged for two days. They huddled in the darkness, listening to the whistle of falling missiles, the explosions. When it was over, Loren emerged and looked around. She saw that her whole neighbourhood had been demolished. The steel tram lines that ran run up and down the hill lay twisted in a knot, as though thrown down by a giant. But the Anderson shelter had saved them.

After finishing school, Loren became a typist. She had excellent speed and accuracy, and an interest in world economics and politics. When she got married at twenty, she had to give up her job; in those days it was against the law for married women to work. That didn’t stop Lauren.

Her husband, Patrick, was a skilled joiner. He built the town’s first DIY hardware store and Loren ran the shop. She worked long hours. The business was very successful. All of Glasgow was being rebuilt after the war, and people needed timber and supplies to work on their houses.

Loren has always loved the building trade. ‘I’m into design’, she explains. She has an eye for detail and an appreciation for fine craftsmanship. Above all, she understands the importance of providing shelter.

When she was thirty-two, Loren emigrated to Australia with Patrick, their three young children and her mum. They built The Clan Motel at Terrigal, then Loren ran the guesthouse for twenty years. She had another baby and kept on working. She never stopped. In between, she and Patrick built several properties and shops.

The hardest time in Loren’s life was when her beloved Patrick became ill from mesothelioma and nothing could save him. For Loren, it was the most terrible thing to lose her partner and best friend of forty years.

Loren immersed herself in family and work. It was a dreadful time. But she felt she still had things to do, and with her son, she built the Woodport Inn at Erina. It was another successful business. Years later, she remarried. She built a house with her new husband, threw herself into interior design, and took up painting and lead lighting.

It wasn’t easy for Loren, being a woman in a male-dominated industry. Sometimes people resented her drive and her success. Some went out of their way to obstruct her.

That didn’t stop Loren.