“As a bit of a joke, my mum sent me a very small notice that appeared in the Gippsland Times saying a teacher was needed on a remote island in The Bahamas. Mum suggested that it seemed like a dream job, but probably didn’t seriously expect me to pursue it. I think she regretted sending it to me for a short time after I actually did apply and was successful,” she recalls. “The lady who was doing the interview for the job had been a nanny on this tiny island in The Bahamas and had moved back to Gippsland. She said: ‘I remember you, I gave you a lift home from a one-night waitressing gig when you were sixteen. I know your family and I know you. You’ve got the job.’ So I packed my bag, much to my mum’s despair at the time, and left. Mum was delightfully surprised how everything turned out in the end, but she had been a bit worried about her little girl going to a faraway country.” Danielle spent around 18 months in the teaching post on Harbour Island in The Bahamas. During her time there, she met her future husband Chico Johnson. Chico accompanied Danielle back to her parents’ property in Longford when she returned home in early 2006.
“Chico and I journeyed from this beautiful island in The Bahamas, to a new life in Gippsland and it’s been an incredible adventure!” Danielle says. “I taught at Bundalaguah Primary School for a year in 2006 and also did a lot of relief teaching around the Seaspray/Longford area. At first Chico did everything from fencing, to picking tomatoes, to milking, before we went on to establish CheekyMac in 2008. We’ve between dividing our time between Longford and Melbourne ever since and have travelled back to The Bahamas for visits about six times, but still miss it.” The couple married firstly in Australia in 2010 and then repeated their vows in The Bahamas at a second ceremony later that year. Danielle adopted Chico’s son Jason, now aged 20, who joined them permanently in Australia after the wedding. Danielle and Chico have added two further children of their own – a son River Leon, who is 9, and daughter Nevaeh, 7. Losing her mum in 2019 was a pivotal moment for Danielle and has caused her to reassess her priorities in life and where she wants her family to be. These periods of reflection and contemplation have only been reinforced by the events of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our family currently spends a lot of time with my dad on the property in Longford where I grew up, but we are actually looking to build a place of our own along the Ninety Mile Beach and continue to create our future in Gippsland,” she reveals.
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