FEATURE - Passionate about people

Ann Wells is an anchor in her community, a port in a storm, and the person you know will keep the ship steady - and well stocked!

by Louise Tasker

At Montville’s Australia Day Breakfast in 2019, Ann and her now late husband, Chris Wells, were presented with the Montville Citizens of the Year Award. At that stage, they had for 12 years been operating the Montville IGA and contributing in many ways to the fabric of the Montville community. 

Seven years later Ann is still working hard at keeping all the balls in the air, though now she does it without her beloved Chris by her side.

Ann knew Chris almost her entire life and they were married for 60 years. How they met is a bit like a fairy tale. 

Her mother and RAF father were married in 1943, and Ann was born in Kent, UK. The marriage did not survive World War II and Ann, who was an only child, and her mother continued to live for several years with her grandparents. 

When Ann was about three, her mother found work as a housekeeper in Surrey, a move which set Ann within Chris’s orbit and on a path that eventually ended in Australia. The new employer was Mrs Wells and she was Chris’s mother. Sir Henry Wells was a partner in the family Estate Agency business. 

Ann remembers with great fondness those early years spent living with the Wellses. “There was so much freedom, I had the most wonderful time. Even now, I could walk you through the house and around the garden because I remember it so well.”

When Ann was nine, the big house was sold and the Wellses moved to London and she and her mother moved onto a farm near Ashford in Kent. Her mother and Mrs Wells continued to be good friends, so the families remained entwined.

Ann says her life in Kent continued to be sunlit. “Mum and I had a wonderful life. Of course, as a child you never remember bad stuff. In my mind, it is always summer and I was always in a summer dress. And I had wonderful grandparents with whom I spent all my school holidays.”

When Ann left school she became a legal secretary for the Church Commissioners for England, based in Westminster, London. She lived in Kensington with Chris’s family and their friendship blossomed into a romance.

Ann and Chris married in 1962, and they emigrated to Australia in 1963. 

They landed in Adelaide and stayed there for nearly 40 years. Life was busy. Their two children were born and raised on a big property in the Adelaide hills, where Ann and Chris farmed cattle and sheep while continuing to run various retail businesses in the city. 

“Our son Mark became an experienced horse rider and won many awards for eventing.

We were surrounded by caravans, horse floats, gymkhanas and races and a community of horse lovers with whom we stayed friends after we left.”

Eventually, Ann and Chris felt it was time for an adventure, and in 2003 they decided to travel around Australia. They pulled up in Mapleton to visit family and went no further. 

They had plans to retire, but instead they turned an old Nambour bakery into a café called The Bite, bringing with them the cosmopolitan ideas of Adelaide city. From here, they purchased the lease of the Montville IGA and began operating the business in October 2007.

In late 2013, the Montville Post Office closed. This was a huge blow to the community – not just for the residents but for the businesses as well. Fortunately, the IGA’s landlord purchased the little shop next door to the IGA, knocked the two shops together and the Post Office began its next life in March 2014, under the guidance of Ann.

I’m curious about all the home-made foods in the shop. “I was already baking, but one day Chris said to me ‘we’ve got all these over-ripe tomatoes, I’ll need to throw them out’, and I said ‘don’t do that, I’ll make something with them’. 

“I made a chutney and relish, then marmalades, and we had a stall at the Montville Markets. Then we brought them into the shop. Chris came up with the name Ann-Made and it’s been called that ever since. The home-made foods in the shop are the most popular items we sell.”