JACK Powley once told the story of leaving the funeral, many years ago, of a local identity. One of the mourners muttered to him, ‘I think we’ve been to the wrong funeral. That wasn’t the bloke I knew!’
In showing respect to the dead, we sometimes fall into the trap of giving them saintly status. That isn’t what Jack Powley would have wanted when it came to his own death, which occurred on October 15th at the age of 82.
People’s reaction to Jack depended on which part of the prism they saw him through. A complex personality, he was a cranky and short tempered task-master for some but warm and compassionate for others. It’s probably true to say that no-one had a neutral reaction to Jack.
He could be remote but also engaging; intimidating and tender; morose and charming; an introvert and an entertaining raconteur; always firmly entrenched in his views and then surprisingly non-judgemental.
Often a private person, he wasn’t one to express his deepest feelings easily. Jack Powley was not someone who could ‘gild the lily’ by getting around the truth of a matter. While this attribute didn’t endear him to some, it was admired by others.
Speaking to an old friend from the North-West after Jack’s death, his wife Shirley commented that she knew Jack was not always “everyone’s cup of tea” to which their friend quickly replied (to Shirley’s great pleasure) “He was ours!” The number of people who travelled long distances to be at Jack’s funeral, and the number of messages received by the family, is a testament to that sentiment.
John George (Jack) Powley, the eldest child of Claude and Kathleen Powley, was born on August 14, 1932 in Charters Towers. The first two decades of his life centred on Charters Towers and Townsville. His last two years of schooling at St Teresa’s Agricultural College at Abergowrie, west of Ingham.
An old school mate, Tom Duffy, remembers Jack as an athlete who excelled as a sprinter:
“He was a runner and owned a pair of running shoes with spikes. There weren’t many kids who had such things in those days. John was chosen in 1947 to run with the College team for the Bishop’s Cup. He was only in Sub Junior and was running against boys from Townsville and Charters Towers in Senior. The boys from the bush won the race – a truly great win.”
On leaving Abergowrie in 1948 Jack worked for the late Dan Sheehan on his tobacco farm in the Herbert Valley. This was the Dan Sheehan who penned the words of the poem The Pub Without Beer, which later became the iconic Slim Dusty song The Pub With No Beer.
It wasn’t long before the “cattleman” in Jack’s personality emerged. He worked at several stations in Central Western Queensland and one in the north before going to Stanbroke Station (between Duchess and Dajarra) in the North West. This is where, in 1952, he met the station governess Shirley Ryan.
The couple married in 1955 and moved to Sedgeford Station at Alpha where Jack was Overseer. In 1957 – 1958 he managed El Rita south of McKinlay, owned by the late William Simpson, before the Winter Irving and Allison families, owners of Wondoola in the Gulf country, offered him the position of manager on the station.
The eight years that the young family spent on Wondoola shaped all of them and it was here that Jack was in his element. The close relationships between the family and the employees, many of whom were aboriginal, meant that Wondoola (like most cattle stations in the Gulf at that time) were close-knit communities in their own right. Strong friendships were forged with others on the station and families from other properties and in Normanton and Cloncurry.
The 1960’s were still the era of the kerosene fridge, infrequent trips to town or even to neighbouring properties. The weekly mail run came in the form of a TAA DC3 weekly landing on the dirt airstrip beside the homestead. Regular visits from the Royal Flying Doctor Service plane, along with the delivery of the big pre-wet season food supply by the late Charlie O’Neill from Normanton were welcome contact with the outside world.
The years on Wondoola also gave Jack his first experience of public service, being elected to the Carpentaria Shire Council. His first association with horse racing also began in these years, when he raced a mare named Winsome Kate.
In 1965 the family moved to Cloncurry where, in the following year, Jack began a business partnership with the late Jeff Daniels at Brodie & Co. Jack worked with other investors who each contributed $1000 to help drive the creation of the second saleyards in Cloncurry.
Originally named the Bill Harrington Memorial Sale Yards after one of the original investors, the yards were eventually sold to the Cloncurry Shire. The yards also featured in the 1976 ABC documentary A Big Country , featuring the Annual Horse Sale.
The video of the documentary, which is an insight into a significant part of Cloncurry’s history, was enjoyed by family and friends after Jack’s wake.
Jack Powley owned several good racehorses and became a bookmaker attending the race meetings around the Gulf and North West. His motivation for becoming a bookmaker was not to make a fortune and he never did.
It was, however, an ideal way to indulge his love of the sport and to keep in touch with clients in the cattle industry. He was jokingly known as “Old Fearless” by some of his best friends, as he was cautious with his money and not otherwise a gambler.
In the early 1970’s, Jack had his second taste of public service, being elected to the Cloncurry Shire Council. In 1979, he was elected Shire Chairman and served two terms before being defeated in 1985. He threw himself into the role and, at times, family life suffered.
He was a tireless promoter of Cloncurry and wasn’t shy about engaging with the media about issues that affected the Curry and the wider Shire. During his time on the Council, he was adamant that Party Politics should not intrude in local government affairs.
Successful ideas that Jack Powley drove included the establishment of the Mary Kathleen Park and the purchase of its renowned rock collection. He was heavily involved with the early years of the Cloncurry Show, taking on the job of Chief Steward for the Woodchops, and raising significant sponsorship for the event which brought first class competitors from across Queensland and interstate.
Jack Powley had a high regard for old residents of Cloncurry and descendants of the early pioneers, and he recognised wherever possible. This reflected his respect for the ‘doers’; not just the talkers. His nomination of Rexie Moreland for the Shire’s Citizen of the Year award illustrated Jack’s appreciation of the people who served the Shire with no fuss – Rex being the man who diligently swept Cloncurry’s footpaths and gutters.
The overwhelming memory for the Powley family of Jack’s presence at home in Cloncurry was a swag and often saddle dropped near the front door and the incessant sound of the two-way radio crackling in the living room; an extra lifeline for many station people with town.
On leaving Brodies in the mid-1970s, Jack initially concentrated on his small property Castlereagh on the outskirts of Cloncurry, and later on his own company –Jack Powley & Co. Through this transition, he retained his Bookmakers Licence.
For several years, before retiring and leaving Cloncurry, Jack became the groundsman at the Cloncurry State School. Mrs Billie Telford from the Leichhardt Hotel insisted he wasn’t the groundsman - he was the ‘external administrator’!
In 1999, Jack made an uncharacteristically quick decision to purchase a home at Howard in the Wide Bay region and Shirley and he commenced their retirement. He was never quite “at home” away from Cloncurry and the Gulf.
He missed the Station visits, the cattle sales and the camaraderie of men with the same interests, a beer at the end of the day, sharing yarns and the often hilarious stories of bush life. The atmosphere of Cloncurry’s Post Office and Leichhardt Hotels can’t readily be found away from “home”.
However, retirement did give Jack more time to indulge his love of reading, usually history, politics, biographies, humour and Australian bush poets. To the frustration of his family, he loved shopping, usually for meat in quantities large enough to feed a large family. He would diligently inspect every item and price tag before deciding on a purchase of silverside or rump.
One of the prayers at Jack’s funeral was that “Memories of Jack today be filled with love and laughter”. And there was a lot of loving laughter about the idiosyncrasies of this true man of the North West, including his love of a good pen and, like all bushmen, a good pocket knife and good carving knife. He was never keen on lending any of these treasured items and could always remember where they had last been seen ‘before someone moved them!’
To the best of the family’s knowledge this man of the North West was honest in business and a genuine friend. He is survived by Shirley and their six children – Joanna, John, Stephen, Martin, Katharine, William and their families, along with his two sisters Claudine and Margaret.
