LONGTIME Swan View residents Russell and Bernadette Waugh celebrated 60 years of marriage last month with their extended family.

Mr Waugh said the couple have lived in Swan View for 53 years and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

They both graduated from UWA with their bachelor’s degrees in the class of 1963 and married the following year.

In their Swan View home, they raised three children together and welcomed nine grandchildren to the Waugh family.

The entirety of their extended family came home to help them celebrate their diamond anniversary, celebrating with a home-cooked meal by Bernadette and some quality family time.

Both Russell and Bernadette have been active volunteer workers in the local community throughout their time living in the Swan View area and were awarded medals of the Order of Australia in 2019 for their contributions to community life and well being.

Annually, they organise a Christmas appeal through the St Vincent charity and have consistently provided around 60 free food hampers and roughly 400 presents to Perth families and children in need at Christmas time.

These gifts come from donations and are collated by Russell and Bernadette and distributed through St Vincent’s.

Still keeping busy, Bernadette has picked up photography and was recently awarded third prize in the Mundaring Photographic Exhibition, which is currently being shown at the Boya public library.

Russell is a former president of the Shire of Mundaring and for the last 25 years has delivered free science incursions to local primary schools to help younger kids learn about science and have fun with experiments.