General News
20 May, 2025
Biggest Morning Tea at the Skilbeck’s
Plaistow Homestead’s gardens will be open again to the community this Saturday for Peter and Lilian Skilbeck’s much loved event to support those with cancer.
One of the Cancer Council’s flagship events, the couple’s own Biggest Morning Tea will return this weekend with every cent raised going directly to Cancer Council to help programs and research funding.
To accompany the morning tea, Mr Skilbeck said there will also be plants and knitted goods for sale and a raffle with numerous draws.
“There will be scones fresh from the oven and limitless tea and brewed coffee and raffle prizes again. There will be six or seven musicians out the front on the verandah,” Mr Skilbeck said.
The couple believe these aspects have brought back numerous attendees showing their support, observing the event’s rapid growth since it began.
“We are not actually sure now when it all started, but I know we have done it for at least 25 years,” Ms Skilbeck said.
“It just started as a little morning tea in front of the fire, and it has just grown and grown.”
Mr Skilbeck agrees.
“There’s a woman who has come for 10 or 15 years at least. I don’t think she has ever not gotten a prize,” Mr Skilbeck said.
“Last year in our paddock, we had 60 cars, it just got huge, which is fantastic. We got 30 chairs that were ours, and about 100 plastic chairs, and I was still looking for somewhere to sit.”
The guest speakers at this year’s event will be members of their own family, hoping to share their experiences.
It’s a cause close to the Skilbeck family. The couple sadly lost their daughter to melanoma, and Ms Skilbeck is a cancer survivor herself.
“This year will be a bit different. Lilian is going to talk for a while, one of our granddaughters is going to talk, she’s had melanoma removed from her leg, so she wants to talk about it,” Mr Skilbeck said.
“Every generation in our family has had cancer of some sort. That drives you a little bit harder to make things happen.”
This originally inspired the couple to host the event, and support other families experiencing the same hardship.
“The initial trigger for the event was when our eldest daughter was telling me it was time to do something because I was a survivor,” Ms Skilbeck said.
She said it has taken a shift for the community to realise this is their way to support an issue that affects many other families.
“It’s not for sympathy, it’s in support for you,” Ms Skilbeck said.
The Skilbecks’ Biggest Morning Tea will be on Saturday, May 24 from 10.30 am until 12.30 pm at Plaistow Homestead, 324 Rodborough Road Joyce Creek.
The event is open to all with entry by donation.