By Julie Walker
Like many of the old-time farmers, Stan Pearce did a lot of things in his life.
Stan’s grandparents, James and Martha Pearce, settled on a 50 acre (20ha) block at Oakey Creek, Gheerulla in 1897 and ran a few dairy cows and bullock teams to cart the plentiful supply of timber coming from the area.
This would always be known as the “starter block” and members of the family later moved to Walli Creek closer to Kenilworth where a six bedroom home with wide verandas was built to accommodate the large Pearce family.
Stan was the youngest of seven children born to Jack and Mabel Pearce on 28 June 1930 at Sunny Brae Hospital at Eumundi.
He then grew up on the family farm at Walli Creek with his siblings, Florence, Adele, Glenna, Jean, Beryl and Norman.
Stan left school at 13 to help his father on the farm, his teacher, Harry Welch, sent him off hoping that his father could teach him a thing or two.
Stan married Jean Heather Moon at the Church of England in Nambour on 30 June 1951 at the age of 21.
They moved into Walli Creek and started a dairy and beef farm on part of the home property.
His parents retired to Tewantin shortly after.
Stan and Jean lived in a shed for 18 months while Stan and Norm pulled the original homestead down and divided the timber and iron between themselves and in December 1952 they built a house next to the shed for Stan, and a house for Norm on the original homestead site.
In 1955 Stan and Norm bought a crawler tractor and were timber cutters; snigging and dressing logs for electric light poles.
Stan would take the logs to Landsborough on a Chev Blitz.
These logs had been ‘crowned’ by overseer, Charlie Moorland, after whom a well-known camping area is named.
When Stan was 22 a 2“ (5cm) nail went into his eye while building a pig pen.
The doctors were worried that he was going to lose the sight in both eyes – it was so lucky that he didn’t.
Stan and Jean raised four children on their farm in Walli Creek; Suzanne, Maree, Gavin and Julie.
Gavin still resides in Kenilworth close to his mother Jean.
Stan bought Norm out later, and the family moved down to Norm’s house and continued dairying until 1965 when they moved to Watson Rd in Southside, Gympie.
Stan started work in the pine plantations – snigging logs with draught horses – and continued working there for three years.
Later they sold the house in Gympie and bought some more cattle, two tractors and other farm equipment and moved back to the farm at Walli, and started dairying and beef again.
As people may be aware Stan used to organise mini rodeos on the property and he built an arena where he used to raise money for many and varied community groups.
There were also roping and dogging schools held at the grounds.
Stan loved his rodeos and travelled the local area with his horses and would rope, haze for doggers, and compete in ribbon races, cow hide races (maybe the first in Australia), and gymkhana events.
Even with his one eye he could still rope very well and won numerous roping events.
Stan loved the Kenilworth Rodeo Committee and worked tirelessly on the rodeo grounds for the Annual Kenilworth Rodeo held each September.
His interest with Australian stock horses started with breeding them and he then setup a stud name for his property which he called Waterloo.
Some of his favourite horses were Paddy, Midnight, Bundy, Walli Mountain Princess and the horse his children all learnt to ride, Creamy, just to name a few.
Stan’s other passion was fishing.
He tried to take the family, once a year, to Burrum Heads, camping in a large canvas tent.
A few nephews almost always came up, which added to the fun.
Because money was tight, Stan had the “Living off of The Land”, ethic, so for breakfast, dinner and tea, plus morning tea and afternoon tea they ate fish and if you were hungry you ate fish.
He was always into growing his own fruit and veges.
He always said, you should never plant a tree unless it bears fruit.
In his later years he bought a block of land and then a house in Tin Can Bay, but the sand-flies drove him to live in Goomboorian where he had a bit of land for a house cow.
He started wood-turning and making bowls to sell at the markets with his fruit that he grew in the rich soil.
He loved travelling around in his beloved Triton 4×4 Ute and even drove to Uluru and the Cape.
Later Stan decided that it was time to find a place in Gympie to live, with the help of his family.
He moved to Oxford Crest on the Southside of Gympie.
Stan made numerous friends whilst living there, especially Val, who became a great companion and joined him on a cruise around Australia.
Sadly Stan’s body and memory started to deteriorate, and a decision was made to move Stan to the Douglas Wing at Japara Aged Care Facility in Tewantin. The staff always enjoyed talking to him about the “Old Days” and made him as comfortable as possible.
They played his favourite country music in the background to help him relax in his final days.
Many thanks go to the staff at Japara for their tireless work and commitment.
Stan passed away peacefully on Sunday 21 February 2021 leaving a legacy behind him in his beloved Kenilworth.
