Memories of Dad -Denis

 

Good morning and welcome to this mass in celebration of the life of John O’Rourke.  I am Denis O’Rourke, the oldest of the large family of John and Enid.

John Toomey O’Rourke was born at Gympie in 1916.  The Toomey name was his mother’s maiden name.  He grew up very happily on his parents’ dairy farm at Traveston 15 miles south of Gympie along with five brothers and three sisters.  He completed his secondary schooling at Nudgee College in 1931 with a Junior Certificate just as the Great Depression wrought havoc on the country.

Jobs were virtually non-existent and Dad always said he endured six years, on or near the bread line, with only sporadic work.  He met Mum in Mackay in 1938 and they married in October 1941 while he was in the Armed Services.  So began a wonderful relationship which lasted 66 years. 

Dad joined the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock as an Advisor in Horticulture in Nambour in 1947 but moved to the Caboolture office the next year.  He originally focused on banana production and later on pineapples and small crops.  I know he was very comfortable in this job mixing easily with the farming community and he remained a country boy at heart.

Dad was always a hard worker and on weekends he farmed in succession two blocks of bananas at Cobble Creek and Narangba and later a block of pineapples at Elimbah over a ten year period.  This quickly paid off the family home as Dad had a strong aversion to owing anyone money.  It also supplemented the budget as his family grew.  Dad never considered Bankcard a sensible option!

After living in Caboolture for some 12 years, Mum and Dad built a home at Turner Street Scarborough in 1960 so the family could be closer to secondary schooling.  Here they lived happily for over 40 years and in retirement enjoyed caravanning, the gem fields and a quite a number of holiday trips. At one stage you never knew where they were!  In 2003 they moved to the BallyCara Retirement Village also at Scarborough.

I have a wealth of happy memories of family life at Scarborough.  The home was centred on a large kitchen always warm and welcoming with a large combustion stove and a red laminex topped kitchen table.  The table seated eight in comfort but many more with a little effort. Here family members and visiting relatives enjoyed Mum and Dad’s company and the famous J T cups of tea – hot and strong and suitably sweet.  Everyone was welcome, everyone was equal and everyone was encouraged to have an opinion.  I think Dad was ever mindful of how tough life had been in his youth and he was very sensitive and non-judgemental to the problems encountered by his children.  You knew you would get help and support but especially, quiet, sensible advice.

He loved the company of his many grandchildren [and great grandchildren] and he would never hear a cross word against any of them.  Dad enjoyed their company and always wanted to know what they were up to and delighted in following their growth to adulthood.

Now Dad had a great sense of humour and loved a good yarn and he had an enormous collection of stories a few of which he set down in his book appropriately named “As I Recall” which he wrote in 1990. I will share one of my favourites.

 

After effectively hitching a ride with Queensland Rail for some 700 miles from Traveston to Cunnamulla with all of 5/- to his name, Dad got a job with a rabbit-fencing contractor 120 miles west of Cunnamulla.  The job came with some perks – accommodation, rations and hot and cold running water.

Now the free accommodation was a camp tent – freezing in Winter boiling in Summer.

The free rations were all the mutton you could eat but you did have to catch and slaughter your own beast.

For hot running water you walked up the artesian bore drain----for cooler water you walked down the bore drain! It was muddy, untreated, very mineralised and shared with numerous sheep, kangaroos and other assorted animal and birdlife.

 

I will leave you with three observations-

-   The O’Rourke family never went camping

-   The O’Rourke family never, but never, had mutton on the menu

And Dad’s comment on the current topic of recycled water would probably be:

 

     “Get over it, it probably won’t kill you.”

 

Thank you.