HINTERLAND TIMES - A local ‘loco’ legend

Clive Plater OAM has done more for the town of Nambour than one can possibly write about in an article, but Rebecca Mugridge has done her best to cover some of his achievements in a two-part story! (Part 1 can be found online in September’s HT.)

by Rebecca Mugridge

It’s exciting meeting a person gifted with an intellect that, combined with their unique drive, passion and dedication, helped them accomplish impressive things. Clive Plater is one of these people. 

Clive was a big part of Kawana’s rowing course, which began while he was working with Paveways, for around 30 years building canals and roads.

“We were working our way around, creating the canal,” he remembers. “When one day we came into marine mud, I took one of the excavators out and spent a day digging around. We determined it was good so we kept going in a straight line.” 

A great idea was ignited. “I contacted the rowing people in Brisbane and researched what you need for a rowing course. How wide, how long it needed to be. We realised it would fit.”

Clive was well aware that the Sunshine Coast had no rowing course, as rowing was a love of his. 

“I was interested in rowing since I was a kid,” Clive shares. “We had a beach house at Maroochydore on the riverfront, that house was in the family for four generations and we had rowing boats. 

“I considered myself a pretty good rower, but back in those days, there was no rowing club or anything like that, you had to go to Brisbane. When I did a year at the Queensland Institute of Technology, they had a rowing team, but you had to be there on a Saturday, and by Friday night, all I wanted to do was get on the train and come home for the weekend,” he says.

Clive realised that the Sunshine Coast needed its own rowing course and team, and has a testimonial supporting the great achievement of the rowing course for the Sunshine Coast. 

Clive’s idea was a success. Sadly, in later years, a bridge was built across it whose design required pylons into the water, that prevented the rowing course from being used at Olympics or commonwealth games level, but it is still a much-loved and used rowing course.

Another part of Clive’s legacy is the Nambour Museum, home of the famous Shay, the Sandy cane train, the Eudlo – the last steam train to work at the mill, plus displays, stories, local history, local heroes, significant displays and memorabilia from the days of the Moreton Sugar Mill in Nambour and its part in Nambour’s history. 

Clive and his father had been collecting memorabilia for a long time and as the collection grew, it needed a permanent home. 

“It took a couple of years to find somewhere to call home. I had just obtained a grant when someone tipped me off about some vacant space,” Clive says. 

“The space being part of the Department of Transport building. The front section had been modified for storage and was used by the Department of Education and others.” 

Clive took action and they were offered three of four rooms at first for $2,000 per year from the state government. 

“We got our foot in the door,” he says. “And then, as some of the rooms were vacated over time, we would clean them up and expand, and then when Peter Wellington got in, he did some good lobbying and secured the lease on the whole building for us. He has been a big supporter.” 

Nambour’s first museum was officially opened to the community’s delight on April 20 1998, by the Honourable Neil Turner M.L.A. An amazing feat of work from the humble beginnings of a public meeting, which records say 27 people attended, and a steering committee of Bob King, David Smart and Claire Joliffe. 

A generous donation from a local citizen, Mrs Bolton, paid for the first lease and the collection that Clive and his father had been privately collecting since the 1970s was an integral part. Along with the many contributions to the Nambour Museum, Clive also still has an extensive private collection to this day.

The museum boasts military displays, featuring many local heroes and information. One room is dedicated to the Rats of Tobruk, and it is close to Clive’s heart. His uncle, Les “Sandy” Plater, was a Rat of Tobruk, he lost his life while fighting in the Middle East. 

The Rats of Tobruk were Australian and Allied soldiers who had defended the Libyan port of Tobruk against the Germans and Italians, during World War II. Including being caught up in a siege from April to December in 1941. 

According to the Rats of Tobruk association, William Joyce, also known as ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ was a spreader of Nazi propaganda to the UK during World War II. And in one particular broadcast he referred with derogatory comments that they were rats, calling them Rats of Tobruk. 

The brave men took this meant-to-be insult, turned it into an ironic compliment and owned it. Proud of the name! A flag pole at the museum was donated by Dave Hooper, one of the Rats of Tobruk and a former Vice President of the Rats of Tobruk Association, Queensland Branch. 

“When you can link something to what you have on display, that’s interesting to people,” Clive says. 

In one room, you step into a time period portal, from the great displays of household items of that era to the windows themselves that look out of a house back in time, with views from historical photographs. It is fascinating and a deeply enriched experience because of it.

In another room a collection of beautiful, rare books are protected from the sun and dust by large sliding doors that Clive has cleverly turned into information boards. 

Adding to the many ways he has served his community and championed history, Clive drove veterans in his army jeeps at ANZAC Day parades for 30 years. In 2024 Clive and his wife Lorelle were awarded a Council of Elders Appreciation Award for their support and generosity to Norfolk Island. 

Clive’s dedication and works were officially recognised when he received his Order of Australia Medal in the 2022 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to community history, held at Government House in Brisbane - he was nominated by one of the last surviving Rats of Tobruk, Gordon Wallace. 

“The battalion my uncle was in, Gordon was in, there were a lot of locals in that second fifteen,” he said. “He was a great man. He didn’t live to see me get it. 

“I’ve only worn the medal twice, once when the government presented it to me and once more when I attended Gordan’s memorial service.”

A trip to the Nambour Museum is a wonderful way to spend a few hours, opening the door to the remembrance of our history and that of the local sugar industry, and you can also find copies of Clive’s book for sale there, Locomotives of the Moreton Central Sugar Mill.