The long and bumpy road: Tom and Vicki still deeply in love after 50 years

The venerable pillars of the rural community have been running The Royal Hotel on the small town's main street for more than 30 years.

"These guys put up homeless people, they raise money for our sporting groups, they run the kitchen and bar full time, they're just amazing people," their long-time employee Louise told the Leader.

Between sponsoring the NSW Hang Gliding State Competition last week and their normal work running the pub, the couple hardly had time to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

So what's kept this couple going strong for the last five decades?

"Her and her whip," Tom says.

While she didn't have a whip in her hand, Vicki's tongue was sharp enough as she cracked a joke.

"He often tells the kids, 'Fasten your seat belts, your mum says she's been thinking,'" she said.

And it's that entrepreneurial, indomitable, go-getter attitude the couple credits for shaping much of their shared life together.

"We will have to retire one day, but I don't know when. Tom says he's ready but I'm not," Vicki says.

When asked for the secret of a long and happy marriage, Tom had one piece of advice.

"Just do as you're told. Don't ask questions, don't argue, just do it. Then see what comes out of it," he said.

But he also said he didn't used to follow his own advice.

Before they were The Royal Hotel's wise-cracking publicans, Tom and Vicki were teenagers at Manilla High.

Vicki remembers those days fondly.

"He was the most horrid person. I didn't like him at all," she said of the man who would be her husband of more than 50 years.

"We became friends, and then we first started going out. I don't know how it happened, but we just did. It was very turbulent."

That whirlwind romance carried them to their wedding in 1974, but getting married didn't mean the turbulence was going to die down.

Their honeymoon on the Sunshine Coast carried a host of bad omens, starting with a punctured tyre on the drive there.

"So what do we do? We get the spare out of the boot to change the tyre, wouldn't you know it's flat too," Tom said.

"And we didn't have a pump. It was a very shaky start," Vicki added.

When they finally did reach the Sunshine Coast, it was just in time to admire the destruction wrought by Tropical Cyclone Pam, which caused huge amounts of damage to the area the week before the couple arrived.

But the couple persevered, and their patience was rewarded when they got a "do-over" honeymoon cruise around Fiji, Tonga, and New Zealand the following year.

"And then the next year we had a baby," Vicki said.

Tom said the couple often tells others "We don't know how we are so lucky to have such great kids".

"Renee was born two years to the month after we were married. One year later we had Adam, a couple of years later we had Amber, and then we made a big mistake: we had Joel," he said with a laugh.

As for their professional lives, Tom originally worked in banking before getting his first casual position pulling pints around 40 years ago.

Vicki started out as a doctor's receptionist, but then started her own semi-successful clothing company.

It took a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to pull her into the hospitality industry.

Vicki's parents offered them the chance to run The Royal Hotel as a partnership with the idea the younger couple would take over once the older couple retired.

That's how Tom and Vicki started working together side-by-side, seven days a week, and how they quickly found out it takes more than love to run a pub.

"Sometimes it gets a little bit hairy. I've thrown the odd tantrum," Vicki said.

"I remember throwing a steak once in the kitchen and it actually hit the ceiling. Tom was so angry, but we laughed about it after."

The couple will be the first to tell you fights are unavoidable when you're constantly so close to each other, but they always find a solution.

"After we got the steak down I remember saying I wonder if we can still cook it," Tom said with a cheeky grin.

Now in their 70s, the couple have their eyes on retirement, but they're not sure what to do with the Royal.

They've ruled out giving it to their kids, or rather their kids have ruled out that option for them.

"They're all good people, but they don't want to be publicans. They've all got great careers so they don't want to be working seven days and seven nights a week," Vicki said.

Whatever they do, the couple say they definitely want to stay involved in Manilla's tight-knit community, especially when it comes to one of the small town's favourite pastimes: paragliding.

"This year's the 31^st state hang gliding competition to be held in Manilla, and we haven't missed a single one. We've sponsored each and every one of them," Tom said.

The couple love their flying friends so much they scheduled their 50^th anniversary party to coincide with the statewide competition.

Vicki said the competition's organiser, Katinka "Tinks" Smith, sent emails to all the flyers telling them to "make sure you're all there this year because the oldies are having a 50^th wedding anniversary".

So Vicki and Tom celebrated their golden anniversary surrounded by family, friends, and hang gliders.

The best part? No steaks ended up on the ceiling!