FEATURE - Farmer, firie and fine fellow!

Doug Paterson gives us a slice of history with ‘Montville Gem’, Barry Eland.

by Doug Paterson

Barry was born in Ipswich to Ernie and Doris Eland in 1940. He was the seventh of eight children in the Eland family. He left school at 14 to take up a Sheet Metal Worker apprenticeship, but the company folded before he could finish this. 

At the time, Ernie had sold his contract carrying business and built a service station business at Ebbw Vale, about 6km northeast of Ipswich City Centre. Barry worked there for his dad for the next three years.

In 1960, Doris Eland purchased a 37-acre farm at 414 Western Avenue, Montville from Walter Scott. This was a horseshoe-shaped block originally part of Edward Vining’s selection that his son, Charles Vining, had purchased in 1922. 

Bill had kept a block in the centre of the horseshoe because it held a mature, productive orchard. (This block is now owned by Bronwyn and Andrew Huckle.) Charles sold his block in 1955 and it was sold again in 1956, before Doris bought it in 1960 calling it Blue Mist.

Barry recalled that when the family moved on to the farm it was heavily overgrown with lantana that had to be cleared. 

“However, the back corner of the block remained covered with scrub and it was only after a fire that I discovered the remains of a narrow rail line that the Vining family had built to haul timber up the escarpment for milling,” said Barry.

Ernie and Doris had to enclose sections of the original verandah to create enough bedrooms for the family. 

“They mainly grew small crops – mixed vegetables and berries and I got work on Jim Hooper’s pineapple farm,” continued Barry. 

“I was the first person that Jim employed and I later worked in the steelworks foundry Jim established, Hooper’s Engineering.”

Barry had met a local girl, Lois Brook, and they married in 1969. Ernie and Doris were ready to retire from Blue Mist and Barry and Lois bought it from them. This freed the parents to pursue their retirement plans, and Barry and Lois to improve the farm’s output.

In 1967, Ernie and Doris purchased Direlna, number 160, Main Street and 158, a vacant block next door from Mrs Gertrude Witton, who died in 1968. 

“On the 158 block, my parents built a besser block shed to house the Eland’s Mini Museum,” shared Barry. 

Ernie was a keen, amateur horologist who had collected and restored clocks for years, and both Doris and he had built up a large collection of them and a range of pioneering antiques. 

“The museum gave them the opportunity to share this collection,” said Barry. “It also gave them a means to support the Methodist Church further along the street where they were active members.”

At the same time, Barry and Lois planted pineapples and strawberries on Blue Mist as commercial crops, selling to the Brisbane Fruit Market and Golden Circle. 

However, working the farm became an after-hours job for Barry who was now working full time for Hoopers’ Engineering. 

“The business was booming, exporting bespoke machinery around Australia and to international places like Borneo, Antarctica and Saudi Arabia,” explained Barry. In 1975, they sold the farm and built a family home at 8 Kondalilla Road.

Some of the engineering projects Barry worked on were unique one-offs and others became trend-setters. 

“A mechanical ‘Stone Picker’ was commissioned by Saudi Arabia to pick up stones on the sand race tracks to protect the horses’ feet,” said Barry. 

“Hooper also designed ‘Baggage Trolleys’ which became standard across many Australian airports.”

However, perhaps their most famous machine was the one they made to establish an aircraft runway in Antarctica for the Australian Antarctic Expedition. 

Barry told me a story that highlights the quality of their work and the respect and value customers bestowed on it. 

“We had done a lot of work for farmers in the Ord River Scheme, but after a number of years, orders began to drop off. I was sent up to find out why. 

“I came back with good and bad news. Everyone was delighted with the machinery Hoopers had made for them. They were particularly delighted that they were so well made that they had almost no maintenance issues, and after years of hard work they were still going strong. There was no need to buy a new machine when the old one was still doing the job!”

Barry also recalled Hoopers’ involvement in a local project – the construction of the Baroon Pocket Dam. Although first surveyed in 1946, work on the dam didn’t start until 1985. 

“Hoopers was contracted to create the steel framework for the concrete overflow tunnel built under the dam wall to release water in an emergency. It also had to re-position the tram tracks laid to support the building of the 2.5kilometre tunnel taking water under the Blackall Range and maintain the electric motors that powered the equipment used.” In an interesting aside, Barry said that the water treatment plant built at Landershute was powered by a small hydroelectric generator – the first in the region.

Although farming and Hoopers kept Barry busy, he still made time for the community. He joined the rural fire brigade almost as soon as he moved to Montville in 1960. 

“Most farmers did that back then, farm tractors with 44-gallon drums of water mounted on a carry-all and fitted with a hose and pump (one of Jim Hooper’s early designs) were Montville’s ‘fire engines’.”

Barry was a ‘firie’ for over 50 years, becoming the Brigade’s First Officer and receiving a National Service Medal in recognition of this service. 

Along with his wife, Lois, he was a member of the very competitive Montville Badminton Team that competed across the Maroochy Shire in the 1960s and ‘70s. They mainly played in community halls and the Montville School of Arts Hall (now the Montville Community Hall) was its home, boasting a fully marked competition size badminton court.

Through his work, community service and play, Barry has been an important member of the Montville Community for 65 years. He is one of the last of the young farmers who made Montville home, raised a family and ensured that Montville’s past is still reflected in its amenity today.