The first time Illawarra's Dot Hennessy met the girls was when she started working at the Housing Commission in Wollongong.

Now at 80, she's celebrating her special birthday with the close-knit group and she wouldn't have had it any other way.

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"When I woke up and talked to people and told them today I'm going to meet the girls, it was just a very special feeling," Ms Hennessy said.

"All of them worked at the housing commission before me and went there on December 1, 1958," Ms Hennessy said.

The job though challenging, Ms Hennessy said, each other's comforting presence made it easier for them to get through it and also have some fun along the way.

"In that time we had some very challenging bosses - male, of course," she said.

"But I think it was a great place for us to grow and develop."

Another of the group, Maureen Gilbert, said she was lucky they got to see each other go through different phases of their lives.

"We watched each other start courting and then engagements and marriages and then babies," she said.

Even as some of the girls moved away and some unfortunately passed, their love for each other was enough for them to remain connected and keep meeting year after year for 64 years.

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The master planner of the yearly meet-ups Helen Pittman said she had some very fond memories from when they worked together decades ago.

"We had a 'machine room', it was where Mrs Lewis a senior member of staff and I recorded the rental payments on the accounting machine," Ms Pittman said.

"Every day at morning tea time all the girls gathered in that room for the 20-minute break and we chatted about what was happening in our lives. It was a buddy buddy time."

The group met for lunch on February 15 at The Builders Club to share a few laughs and chat about the good old days with hopes of many more to come.

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