FEATURE - The Last of a Generation

Les Gittins epitomises the values of generations past where family and community work together.

by Doug Patterson, Montville History Group

Les was born in 1942 to Reg and Molly Gittins, and grew up on the family dairy farm on Harpers Creek, which flows into the upper Mary River outside Conondale. Molly was a retired teacher and home-schooled Les until he was old enough to travel to the Conondale State School. She was a strict teacher. 

“I remember getting into strife when I was only two for learning Italian quicker than English,” Les recalls. Reg had been allocated two Italian POWs to help on the farm and Les had spent his toddler years following them around the property and learning Italian from them.

In the early 1950s, Reg built a proper family home. He sourced the right trees and felled and dressed them for posts. A carpenter surveyed/pegged out where they needed to go and Reg set them in the ground. The carpenter came back to level and cap them and between them they built the new home. Les is understandably proud that it is still standing today.

In 1956, Les was off to Brisbane Boys College (BBC) to complete his secondary education. Fortunately for family finances, the Conondale school was short a teacher and Molly was able to go back teaching. 

“I accepted BBC as a necessary evil,” Les says, “and when I graduated in 1959, I couldn’t wait to get back to the farm. Then, in 1960, the family moved to Baroon Pocket where I entered into a partnership with Dad in a new dairying venture.”

The farm was just above and west of where the dam wall is now, bordering a state forest. Here Les worked and developed a new interest. “I bought a welder to do basic repairs and modifications to our farm machinery and taught myself welding.” 

This led him to seek advice and tips from another self-taught welder, Jim Hooper, who had Hooper’s Engineering at Montville.

Les also joined the Maleny Branch of Rural Youth and met Leonie, the daughter of another dairy farmer. 

“Leonie and I married in 1968 and moved into a small worker’s cottage on the farm until a new house could be built for my parents. However, in 1972, our eldest son, Robert, was attacked by a large carpet python while asleep. I was able to pull the snake off but the incident led us to reconsider where we wanted to raise our children.” 

At the same time, Les’s relationship with Jim Hooper had developed. He began part-time work with Jim on specific projects which led to being offered a permanent full-time position, eventually becoming a partner in the business. 

Les worked with Jim Hooper for the next 18 years, retiring from the business in 1990. Les went on to manage and later purchase a Nambour steel fabrication business, relocating to Kunda Park when the Nambour Sugar Mill site was redeveloped in 2012.

“While I was working at Hoopers, Jim became concerned about the state of the Montville Rural Fire Brigade. He encouraged me to join it and together we designed and built a system to convert the four-wheel drive tractors of Len Gorsch and Des McCulloch into fire fighting vehicles until Montville got its first fire truck. I then worked on improvements to its capabilities and carried out routine maintenance. I admit I was better at keeping everything working than actually fighting fires!”

In 1974, Les and Leonie purchased a double block of land at the top of Kondalilla Falls Road. They chose to build a steel-framed, three storey, A-Frame home of 32 squares, (66ft by 40ft and 35ft high), big enough for their family of seven on one block, and establish a family garden on the other. 

“It was very much a hands-on, owner builder venture,” shares Les. “I only called on professional tradesmen as needed, so it took several years before it was fully finished with the family living in a caravan and shed and moving in in stages as sections were complete.”

All the Gittins’ children attended Montville State School Les became an active member of the Montville State School P&C over 16 years. He also joined the Montville Village Association and served as President from 1994 to 1996 and again in 2004/05. 

In his first presidency, he worked closely with the President of the Tennis Club to get funding to restore the tennis courts at the Montville Sports and Recreation Grounds. 

He was recalled to serve as President in 2004 after members of that executive had failed to declare conflicts of interest in considering community support for a major Country Club/Golf Course development proposal. 

Les had a long association with the Montville Sports and Recreation Ground, and by the 1980s the five trustees were Les Gittins, Chris Hooper, Ian Russell, Peter Glover and Des McCulloch. Les recalled that Joe Delaney funded a long overdue upgrade to the fence around the tennis courts during his years as trustee. 

When his kids wanted to join scouting, Les naturally became involved as Cub Leader of the Maleny Scout Group for nine years and Assistant Cub Leader at the Range Scout Group on Kondalilla Falls Road until it disbanded. 

When Les retired, he pursued his life-time interest in agriculture and developed a vegetable garden that incorporated traditional gardening in raised beds and hydroponics as well. He also travelled widely with Leonie, joined Probus and is a member of the Flaxton Walking Group. 

Although it is a struggle at times, Les still attends Montville’s Australia Day ceremonies and the Dawn Service on ANZAC Day. 

“I can no longer physically attend meetings but I still correspond to voice my concerns about homelessness, the isolation of older Range women and the lack of a public transport system that meets the needs of aging Range residents.” 

In volunteering to serve our community through five separate organisations, the MVA, the school P&C, the Sports Ground, the Firies and the Scouts for over 50 years, Les epitomises the values of generations past where family and community work together. 

Les Gittins is indeed a worthy Montville Gem.