From real Estates to Real estate
Paula Xiberras
Rosemary Peterswald has made the journey not just from Ireland to Australia but from living in real estates, in the form of big houses and a castle in Ireland, to working in real estate here in Tasmania.
We might claim Rosemary as a Tasmanian even though she no longer lives here. Her family’s legacy continues in the form of Charlotte Peterswald.Real Estate. Presently, Rosemary and her husband sail around the world writing about seafood and wine and the places they dine! I caught up with Rosemary to have a chat about her autobiography ‘Can my Pony Come Too?’ which recounts her early childhood in Ireland and subsequent immigration to Australia and later Tasmania.
Rosemary known as ‘teeny’ to her family, owing to her fifth child status in the family, was familiar with Glendalough, in her home of Wicklow Ireland. Glendalough is the place of St Kevin’s monastic settlement and the famous rock called St Kevin’s chair, where it is said by sitting on it you can cure illness.
In her book Rosemary visits some of the pivotal places of her childhood including paying a visit to Haughton Castle once owned by Rosemary’s family, the Esmonde’s. She meets its colourful inhabitant, a lady who is one of the few people who can boast she conversed with both WB Yeats and Mick Jagger when they stayed at the castle. The castle is also famous for its celebrities of another era in the form of ghosts including the first wife of Lord Esmonde, Ailish O’Flaherty who was the granddaughter of Ireland’s pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley. The ghost of Ailish appear in section of the castle that she stood to wait for her husband’s return from war.
Far away from this fairy tale world, Rosemary and her family set up life in Australia with characteristic resourcefulness that saw them take on a number of different jobs , however, perhaps the most difficult job was probably coping with the snakes and bats in Australia, the former of course unknown in Ireland!
An additional difficulty was adapting to the peculiarities of their new land. Rosemary recounts some examples of her mum’s grappling with the language such as being asked to ‘bring a plate’ to an evening out and doing so quite literally but an empty one! On being asked by a neighbour to take care of the children and ‘hoping they don’t get in the road’ Rosemary’s mum was quick to answer that she always kept a keen eye on them and they wouldn’t ‘get out on to the road’.
Rosemary met her husband through her Duntroon trained brother. After marriage Rosemary and Rob were posted to New Guinea. After returning to Australia a casual meeting encouraged them to move to Tasmania where they set up an apple farm. This produced its own apple anecdotes such as the time a representative of the Jewish community on the mainland interested in purchasing some apples came to observe the farm. Fortunately he nodded off during the visit and didn’t see the pigs interacting with the apples!
Later on Rosemary and Rob entered another career change, this time real estate in the form of Peterswald. Eventually it was time for this eclectic couple to explore new horizons, literally, as they began sailing Australian and international waters, experiencing the cultural, seafood and wine resulting in a number of coffee table books.
Tasmania still holds a special place in Rosemary’s heart hence her launching her autobiography here.
‘Can the pony come too!’ is out now published by Ballynastragh Books.
You can read more about Rosemary here
http://ballynastraghbooks.com.au/index.php/about-rob-and-rosemary-peterswald