Mrs Duffy and Robert Duffy backed Cr Duffy’s claims he moved to 1 Duncanson Drive more than four months before September’s council election, when they gave evidence before the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (ADT) at Orange Court House yesterday.

The Orange Ratepayers Association (ORA) began legal proceedings against Cr Duffy in January, claiming the former Cabonne councillor still lived at his Borenore property Fairbank instead of Orange, making him ineligible for a place on Orange City Council.

The case centres on whether Cr Duffy was living in Orange three months before the declaration of the election poll on September 20, 2012.

Cr Duffy told the tribunal it had been difficult to move from Fairbank, the Borenore rural property he and Mrs Duffy own, because of a strong emotional connection.

“It’s not every day you move out of home, but you adapt,” he said.

Cr Duffy said “nothing much has changed” with the relationship he has with his wife, despite living separately for more than a year.

He says he stays at the Duncanson Drive home five or six nights a week, but “couldn’t say” how often he went to Fairbank.

Barrister Duncan Brakell, representing ORA member John Da Rin, asked if Cr Duffy stayed overnight at Fairbank with his wife.

“No [but] I see my wife a couple of times a week,” Cr Duffy said.

“Sometimes I’ve slept at the Borenore Railway Station.”

Cr Duffy said there was a  makeshift bedroom at the station and he sometimes stocks food in the fridge.

Mr Brakell suggested Cr Duffy took few personal items with him when he moved to Orange for a permanent move.

But Cr Duffy said it was sufficient.

Mrs Duffy testified Cr Duffy had always needed little in the 38 years she had known him and he only had limited personal effects at Fairbank.

She told the tribunal she had lived alone at Fairbank since April 2012 and her husband stayed with her “maybe twice a week”.

A family meeting on Anzac Day 2012 when Cr Duffy announced his intentions to move to Robert Duffy’s house to nominate for Orange council, came as no surprise.

“He wasn’t moving to the end of the earth,” Mrs Duffy said.

Mrs Duffy said she was not prepared to lie under oath for her husband when questioned by Cr Duffy’s solicitor Grant Butterfield.

Mr Brakell went through Cr Duffy’s mobile phone records showing many of his phone calls between June 16 and June 25, originated from west Orange.

Mr Brakell asked Cr Duffy to mark on a map where Fairbank was west of Orange and Duncanson Drive in Orange’s north-east.

After earlier questioning why Cr Duffy knew little about his son’s daily routine, despite living with him since April 2012, Mr Brakell later asked Robert Duffy if he spent any time with his father.

Robert Duffy said he saw his father most evenings and was unconcerned about how long his father intended to live with him.

“He has his life and I have mine,” he said.

Cr Duffy said he could not “predict the future” but had no intentions of moving back to Fairbank.

He admitted he did not pay rent at Duncanson Drive and his son Robert covered all utilities.

The tribunal will hear summaries from both sides in August when it reconvenes in Sydney.