MARTIN Morris, born in Bundaberg in 1920, endured through droughts, floods and fires, but always loved his Queensland life.
One of nine children, Martin Edward Morris was born on May 12 to Dorothy Mary Middleton and Martin Edward Morriss Snr.
He was 12 pounds when he was born, as was his sister Leila. He loved to tell this story as his mother was very short in stature and he was amazed at her strength to have such big babies - particularly in an era of limited medical technology and pain relief.
Martin Snr was born in Queensland but was of Irish descent. He travelled overseas to take part in WWI with the Light Horse Brigade. Here he met Welsh-born Dorothy while he was recuperating from an injury. She was part of the Land Army in England.
She did farm work and all of the men’s jobs while they were at war. The two married in Birmingham, England. They then migrated to Australia and settled in Bundaberg. Martin proudly stated that he was made in England but born in Australia.
Martin moved to Rollston as a baby. He moved to Springsure (West of Emerald) at the age of five and lived there until he was 21.
Martin was schooled at a Convent School in Springsure. He was raised with a Roman Catholic background. He was an alter boy for five years while at school. He didn’t have much schooling as his father was a drover so he was away from school quite a lot from the time he was eight years old.
He worked by his dad’s side but did not receive any pay. School holidays were mostly spent carting wood and water as well as milking about 15 goats for milk and butter.
In those days Martin had a big four wheel cart which he pulled with six billy goats until the depression in 1930 when his dad was out of work for nine months so all the animals on the farm had to be eaten due to lack of food. He left school when he was 13 because he was pulled out of school to work so often (up to six weeks at a time) and fell behind.
He always had a strong connection with his siblings and kept in touch with those remaining until his final days. He spoke fondly of childhood antics and special moments shared. Being the eldest, he bought a toy for each of his siblings from his first pay packet. His sister, Dot still remembers the doll that he gave her. She said that it was a treasured item as they never got new gifts – money was too tight.
While young, Martin spent his hard earned money on his family and gave his mum money to run the house. When asked about learning to drive, he chuckled. “I learnt on a little Buick with back to front gears. I taught myself at Meteor Downs at 13 years of age”.
When asked of his dreams when he was young – he answered “I just wanted a job! I was never sacked. I did my hardest at everything I did.”
Martin was proud of his working career. He labelled himself a “cowboy” or labourer. He started droving cattle at eight years of age. He worked on a dairy for a while milking the 40 cows by hand for the Powell family. The wife ran the dairy and the husband had a mail run which he did with a horse and sulky. Martin had to get up at 2am for a 4am start. He was paid 10 bob a week – a full seven days of work per week. This lasted for three months. Then he went to work on a sheep station for a man called Braitling for three months. He stayed in a leaky shed where he had to throw a cow hide over his gear to keep it dry.
He went on to work on a station called Meteor Downs that had 32,000 sheep and about 10,000 cattle and this is where he learnt all of his stock work. While he was there he also worked on a water boring plant. He worked at Meteor Downs from 15 years - almost 21 years of age. He said that it was the best job of his life because he learnt so much. It was the third biggest woolshed in the Southern Hemisphere at the time with 42 stands for shearers and two wool presses.
He joined the army at 20 and served for five years in total. Five of his friends from Meteor Downs also enlisted. On the Saturday they went in to sign up and said they were ringers and were turned away. They returned to the same place on the following Wednesday and said they were labourers and were signed up on the spot. Ringers were needed on the land - to work the country. His best mate that he went to school with who also worked at Meteor Downs was killed at Milne Bay.
He was sent to Redbank in Brisbane for three months training and this is where he received his truck driving licence. Then he went to the Middle East - Palestine. He spent time there but saw no action and was sent to Malaya as a result.
He was heading for Malaya on the boat when ‘it fell’ and was sent back to Fremantle. Fortunately he wasn’t there as he would have been a POW. He was based in Sandy Creek near Adelaide for six months. While in Papua New Guinea (Milne Bay) he was shooting with the other soldiers. He told us “Some people shut their eyes to pull the trigger”. This story identified that many of the young men had never handled a gun before and had not been trained for combat.
During his time in PNG he caught scrub typhus (from a bug bite) and was sent home to Australia as he was too sick. He recouped at Selheim near Charters Towers. While hospitalised in Australia his five friends were killed in Buna and Sanananda. The hospital was in a stable at the race course in Charters Towers. He was very sick and was paralysed from the hips down for a week. He stayed in hospital for six months.
On release from the hospital he went to Atherton Tablelands for more training before going back to PNG. Then he went to Port Moresby as a driver for the officers. If officers went on leave he would drive them to and from their destination. He was getting ready to go to Japan as part of the Occupational Force when they realised he had enough ‘points’ up to avoid this so he was officially transferred to Morotai, Borneo.
While there he drove loads of crushed shells and coral to make roads. Morotai, Borneo was his last station before being ‘Demobbed”. When he arrived back in Australia he was put in charge of going through army vehicles to decide what was useful and what was not. He was discharged from the army at the age of 26 and went to Redbank in Brisbane. Then he went back to his family in Hughenden.
Martin met Agatha Mary (known as Jenny) while he was on leave in Julia Creek from the Army when she was about 22. Marty was friends with her brother Bosie and other acquaintances from Julia Creek. He had been to war with Bosie so this is where the connection was made. They went to the pictures on a Saturday night (he loved a good cowboys and Indians flick) and to some dances, but Martin didn’t like to dance.
He would watch Jenny dance with the other girls while she thoroughly enjoyed the music on offer. “I like the dances where you changed partners. I waltzed sometimes at dances. I was never much good at dancing until I met Jen and her family. I used to love to watch Jen dance. She was very popular,” Martin once said.
They became engaged in January, 1948. Martin asked Jenny’s father for permission to marry her. Her Mum said, “That is pretty quick isn’t it?” Jenny answered, “If you call four years quick!’ Martin said, “When I asked her, she was so excited she grabbed the ring off me and put it on herself!” He married her the same year on the late afternoon of April 3 in a church at Julia Creek. As there were no cameras in those days, a visiting photographer did photos a few months later which meant they had to dress up and recreate the wedding. This photographer ended up being under the influence of alcohol so the photos still didn’t work out well! The young newlywed couple had a three day honeymoon at a local property.
Jenny and Marty were blessed with four children, two girls and two boys - Jennifer, Barbara, Lawrence and Martin Jnr. All four children attended St Joseph’s Convent in Julia Creek and went on to St Mary's and Mt Carmel in Charters Towers for high school boarding. He was proud of his children and their accomplishments throughout their lives.
As time passed, grandchildren and great grandchildren were a welcomed addition to the family - Vanessa, Lawrence (and his wife Tegan), Amanda (and her partner Bazz), Adam, Oliver and Great grandchildren young Martin (who was sadly lost), Hudson (who he called Dribblepuss as a baby) and Baeddan (who he called Pudding).
After his time in the Army he was a slaughterman at Julia Creek Butcher Shop. He was in the slaughter yard for nine months with Paddy Byrne (another brother of Agatha’s). Shearing became his occupation of choice for the following seven months before he got married.
Martin and his new wife moved to Mackay and he worked driving a truck for Rasmussen. After two years of that job, he got a job managing a station called Longford Downs in Oorindi, North Queensland, and stayed there for two years. He moved on to Julia Creek Motors for a number of years after this.
After this he worked in Nelia where he fenced and worked on the railroad for 12 months. He was second in charge on the railroad. While still in Nelia, he landed two mail runs (one north and one south) carting general goods, wool, stock, hay, sheep and cattle. He did this for 12 and a half years. He was paid 30c from each person per delivery.
He then moved on to manage another property called Yorkshire Downs where he was employed for six years until they sold the property. He tried his hand at cattle carting with a semi-trailer. He drove two or three different trucks, one of which was a seven ton Ford. From there he returned to Julia Creek Motors until he retired.
Since his official retirement, he looked after various stations around the Julia Creek area for owners when they were away on holidays - up until he was about 80 years of age. He also did some mowing jobs around Julia Creek. He was the caretaker of the RSL with good friend Mannie Sills. He also worked part time for 17 years at Julia Creek/Nelia race course. He was also the Vice President of Julia Creek RSL on and off throughout his life.
Martin always had a kind nature and a very infectious chuckle that matched his dry sense of humour and quick-wittedness. In the last few weeks of his life he was very unwell. Throughout this, he still managed to make people laugh.
He liked pork chops, malted milk, beer battered fish and chips, soup, weak white coffee and an occasional nip of Captain Morgan Rum “For while I’m cooking”, he would say. He disliked peas – “They never stay on your bloody fork!” In his last days he wanted KFC hot and spicy wings! And he smashed them even though he was meant to be on a liquid diet. The man knew what he wanted!
Martin had a life filled with times both bad and good but he always battled his way through to ensure the livelihood of his family, be it his siblings or later in life his own children.
He went through four droughts in his life - one was eight years long. He went through fires – His sons fought against a particular fire for 48 hours where 2000 sheep were burnt. During the 1974 flood the family was removed from the roof of their house by helicopter after being stranded for three or four days. He gave his all to the town of Julia Creek and was saddened to have to leave there when Jenny’s health began to fail her in latter years.
Martin spoke the truth, worked hard, loved his family and was a highly respected man. His family and friends are grateful that he is at peace and they thank him for being the incredible man that he was.