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Rob and Rosemary Peterswald
The Full Story
Rob and Rosemary Peterswald, the founders of the property firm, Peterswalds (1990) and Ballynastragh Books have been sailing together for many years, both in Australian waters, in the Mediterranean and on the Dutch and French canals. They have produced eight coffee table books encompassing their sailing experiences, the seafood they have tasted along the way and the many varieties of wine of each region they have sailed through.
Their first boat was a small wooden motor launch, which they acquired in Port Moresby shortly after their marriage in 1966 when Rob was posted as an officer with the Pacific Islands Regiment at Taurama Barracks. In 1975, with Rob now posted to Canberra, they acquired a Boomeroo 22, based on the design of the Catalina 22, an American yacht, which they sailed on Lake Burley Griffin and along the coast of NSW.
In 1980 after Rob retired from the Australian army they moved to Tasmania where they bought an apple orchard on the Tasman Peninsula and continued their love of sailing by purchasing a Huon pine sloop, The Charlotte Rose, which they sailed extensively in Tasmanian waters. Having retired from their property firm Peterswalds, which is still trading under the Peterswald name and where Rosemary auctioned as one of the first female auctioneers in Australia and a member of the Auctioneers and Estate Agents Council of Tasmania, they wished to sail further afield, across Bass Strait and up the east coast of Australia. Hence, they purchased a Roberts Mauritius, named Reveille. Their next yacht was a Tasmanian 1950’s Huon and Celery Top pine ketch, Tasman Isle. In the year 2000, when they retired from their successful real estate business, Peterswalds, in Hobart, they purchased Oceania 11, a fifty-foot ketch, which was such a pretty yacht that Claudia Shiffer, the famous supermodel, demanded to be taken sailing on her.
On Sea Dreams in Crete
It was when sailing on Oceania from her home in Queensland back to Tasmania that Rob and Rosemary came up with the idea of producing coffee table books on their experiences. Firstly, came From the Sea, showcasing Tasmania’s beautiful sailing waters, seafood and wine, followed by Beyond the Shore featuring the east coast of Australia from Port Davey in the Southern Ocean to the tip of far north Queensland.
Having yearned to sail the Mediterranean in 2008 they bought a new Benneteau Oceanis 50 in Gruissan in the south of France. And so began their adventures in the Mediterranean on Sea Dreams, which has resulted in Sea Dreams in the Western Mediterranean, Sea Dreams in the Adriatic,50 Romantic Havens in the Mediterranean and 101 Greek Islands. In 2017 they decided to sail the Dutch and French canals. In the town of Sneek in Holland they found Linna, a Dutch steel boat and sailed her throughout Holland and France until they arrived in Strasbourg in October 2019, where they left her for the European winter to return to Australia. In 2020 COVID hit and sadly Linna had to be sold. Subsequently, they published a book on their canal travels called Beautiful Waterways. They also published a new edition of Beyond the Shore, featuring the east coast of Australia, called Coasting.
They now have Water Music a Catalina Morgan 44 (built by the same Californian firm as their original Boomeroo). They keep her at their berth in Bayview Harbour below their apartment at Runaway Bay in Queensland and continue to sail extensively. They have now produced a new edition of Beyond the Shore, this time called Coasting, a Sailing and Dining Odyssey Along Australian Shores.
Rosemary, (nee Esmonde) who was born in Tipperary in Ireland and commenced her career in Real Estate in 1973 becoming one of the first female property auctioneers in Australia, has published a novel The Homestead on the River with Harper Collins, (Mira) under the name Rosie Mackenzie. She then published another novel under Rosie Mackenzie called Love in a Far Place. She has also published a memoir, Can My Pony Come Too? under the name, Rosemary Esmonde Peterswald, the name she also uses for her novel, Bird of Paradise and The Pursuit of Harry Hoffman, a historical suspense mystery.
Rob has published a novel, The Castle at Peters Forrest and Volumes 1 and 2 of the History of the World from the Back of a Boat. He is also about to publish a novel, The Beautiful Assassin, set in the time of the Crusades and Walk in the Wild about his patrols in New Guinea in the 1960’s and 70’s. They are delighted that their new books are available in most bookshops, libraries, gift shops and many other outlets, as well as online.
Rosemary has her own radio show, Lots to Chat About on 4rph Reading Radio in Brisbane where she chats to people from all walks in life. It is syndicated around Australia and is also available on her Youtube channel, which you can visit here.
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