“Well I’ve got a heap of stuff at home that I was always saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll do that when I retire,’” he said. Alan doubts he’ll ever run out of fix-it jobs in his house, and is now preparing to build his wife Roma a new kitchen.

“Now I need to get back to work to have my rest!” he joked. 

Alan fell in love with Inverell as a teenager, and took the first opportunity to move back. He raised three children here and has no plans to leave.

“I’ve been in Inverell for 50 years now. I’ve got my spot booked up on the hill. I’m here to stay”. 

He settled into the pest control business, enjoying the flexible hours and time with people. Crawling through small spaces is not a problem for Alan, who has never panicked when confronted with claustrophobic trapdoors and creepy cobwebs, despite being stuck more than once.  

“The worst time I was at an old brick house with full brick which means every room goes down to the ground, so underneath it’s like a rabbit warren,” he said. 

With the homeowner gone for the day, Alan found himself in for the long haul. He was stuck for five hours with a mask to protect himself from the poisonous gases he’d sprayed and a torch that died quickly. Despite the dire nature of his predicament, Alan took it in his stride.

“You just got to make sure you keep yourself relaxed. I actually went to sleep!”

Alan finally made it out, sans overalls.

“I managed to wriggle out of my overalls to gain a little more room and I just squeezed out. Lost a yard of skin off my back on the way”.

Alan has faced many challenges over the years, including starting from scratch when he was dropped from the Flick Pest Control franchise at 51-years-old, and working with people despite his life-long speech impediment. 

“It was tough when I was a kid,” he admitted. 

“Now I’m grown up, most people are no worry at all. But when you’re a kid you get a hard time. Kids torment you and take the mickey out of you.” 

Alan, as usual, refused to let that stop him, and took on speech engagements as a wedding emcee and president of the Macintyre Lions Club in the 80s.

Whatever challenges he finds in retirement, Alan is sure to keep facing them head on.