The residents of Broadlands Tamworth in the northeastern region of NSW love having fun.
Subconsciously copying the 2003 comedy Calendar Girls, featuring Dame Helen Mirren, the late Julie Walters, and John Alderton, the retirees decided to strip off for a good cause.
The Dare to Bare calendar is the brainchild of Kathy Challinor, a resident of the Over 50s land lease community, and is designed to raise money for a village community project.
The “very tasteful” 2026 calendar follows the highly successful Broadlands Cookbook published in 2024, which Kathy coordinated with fellow resident, Jenny Davies, and highlighted the extensive culinary talents to be found within the village community.
The cookbook raised funds for a seating project in one of the village green space areas, and proceeds from the calendar will be directed towards a similar project to benefit residents.
A throw-away comment during the cookbook launch prompted the calendar project.
An official asked Kathy, “What’s next?” and she jokingly responded, “A nude calendar”, which has been a lively topic of discussion and anticipation among village residents ever since.
“The words were out of my mouth before I really thought about what I was saying,” she said.
Always up for a challenge, Kathy started gauging support among Broadlands’ residents.
“Some laughed and told me I was off my head, but I said ‘no, we can do it, it will be lovely’,” she said.
As luck would have it, the retired audiometry nurse has an “old school friend”, Sharon Ritchie, who is a photographer, and after some friendly persuasion, she agreed to get on board.
“I then madly ran around the village putting up notices, asking if anybody was interested in doing a very tasteful but nude calendar,” she said.
“The level of interest was good – the calendar only required 15 models but ended up with 19 volunteers.”
The models ranged in age from the early 60s to 89, with about eight over 80.
The cover model is a sprightly 70-something, Ian Sipple, sitting on his motorbike.
Kathy said Ian was a long-time resident and a “favourite with many”.
“He’s never still for long, always fixing something or working in the garden – Ian’s always doing something for somebody,” she said.
Ian is also a volunteer with the Kingswood Rural Fire Service and a fire warden for the village. The locations selected for the shoot highlight the varied activities available in the over-50s lifestyle village, while also providing the privacy models needed to work with the photographer. They included social areas, such as the barbecues, clubhouse, gym, croquet and bowling greens, the library, and one with dogs, to show that pets are welcome in the village.
With additional models, some ended up sharing calendar months – Kathy and her husband, Peter, share the month of April.
She added the highly anticipated release of the calendar has given residents “something to focus on”.
Tamworth State MP Kevin Anderson launched the calendar, which has sold out.
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