Nov2010_Vale LYLE BENNETT
5/07/1931 – 22/09/2010
Lyle was born on 5th July 1931 and grew up on the 80 acre farm that his parents Ernie and Liz Bennett acquired about 1925 at Postman’s Track Samsonvale now under water.
Lyle was the third in a family of seven – Marjorie, Raymond (dec.), Lyle, Daphne, Doris, Pauline (May), and Audrey. He passed away peacefully on the 22nd September, 2010 aged 79.
A humble, somewhat shy and reserved man, Lyle was always well informed on what was going on in the world and always enjoyed a yarn. He was life long friends with Ken Gold who lived nearby. They were in the same class at Mt Samson School and travelled there by the 8 o’clock rail motor each morning and in the earlier days travelled home on the 4 o’clock goods train. In later years they walked home across the paddocks, taking time to hunt for eels and mullet in Samson Creek or attending to the produce of some well known guava trees in season. With the whole school family, boys and girls together, they enjoyed games such as rounders, cricket, football, red rover, and lunchtime swimming in a dammed up section of Samson Creek in Wagner’s paddock.
In those days it never occurred to them that wearing patched clothes or going barefoot, or having dripping sandwiches was unusual.
In the later years of primary school four of his class, including Lyle, got the opportunity to become members of a Lone Patrol of the Boy Scouts movement. Their rough self-run group was adopted by the 1st Milton group and this widened the Milton group’s horizons greatly – camping in this area with our troop and later finding their way, unaccompanied by adults, to the big city. After joining the Milton boys, the Lone Patrol Boy Scouts went with them to the big Easter camps at Yandina and Murphey’s Creek. The experience was an important feature of growing up.
On weekends Lyle, Raymond, Bill Houghton and Ken Gold spent a lot of time exploring the creeks and mountains in the district. The creek was a particular attraction and they seldom had use for swimming togs. On one occasion while swimming near the road crossing in the nude as usual, a car full of tourists stopped to admire the scenery. As they would not move on the boys were forced to swim a hundred yards up stream and around a corner of the creek before creeping back through the bushes to their clothes to get dressed.
Few students of Mt Samson School ever passed the grade 7 Scholarship exam, but most of them went on to try to catch up in city boarding schools. Lyle had to do his secondary schooling the hard way by catching the morning railmotor at the 23 mile gates and getting off at Central Station in order to board a tram to State High School in South Brisbane. By the time he arrived he would have missed the first lesson or two. He would catch the railmotor home at five o’clock and arrive home after six. It is no wonder that he dropped out before the end of the usual two year secondary school period.
Lyle joined his father and brother Raymond on the dairy farm. They branched out into pineapple production on newly acquired land. At one stage Lyle sought to branch out on his own as a vegetable farmer on a leased property at Redland Bay, but he returned to Samsonvale when Raymond was killed in an unfortunate tractor accident.
Lyle joined the social life of the district by playing regular Saturday tennis on the courts that were part of Gold’s old farm. When a Junior Farmers Club was established in Samsonvale, Lyle was our first Secretary and continued in the club until he became too old to be a member. He always attended our local dances but never danced. He was content to spend the nights yarning to friends who gathered at these important social gatherings.
The 1950’s and 60’s brought great changes to agriculture as horses were replaced with tractors and a range of machinery to go with them; electricity was connected; milking machines and refrigerated milk storage units were installed and Ken and Lyle moved to improved pastures; irrigation and artificial insemination of the dairy herds. These improvements were the subject of long conversations and machinery was shared to economise.
Lyle’s and Ken’s time as neighbouring farmers came to an end when the North Pine dam swallowed up their adjoining farms. Ken moved to the city. Lyle moved a few miles up stream to Kobble where he continued to live a hardworking life and enjoyed his retirement in the new house he built on his property.
A humble, somewhat shy and reserved man, Lyle was always well informed on what was going on in the world and always enjoyed a yarn. He was life long friends with Ken Gold who lived nearby. They were in the same class at Mt Samson School and travelled there by the 8 o’clock rail motor each morning and in the earlier days travelled home on the 4 o’clock goods train. In later years they walked home across the paddocks, taking time to hunt for eels and mullet in Samson Creek or attending to the produce of some well known guava trees in season. With the whole school family, boys and girls together, they enjoyed games such as rounders, cricket, football, red rover, and lunchtime swimming in a dammed up section of Samson Creek in Wagner’s paddock.
In those days it never occurred to them that wearing patched clothes or going barefoot, or having dripping sandwiches was unusual.
In the later years of primary school four of his class, including Lyle, got the opportunity to become members of a Lone Patrol of the Boy Scouts movement. Their rough self-run group was adopted by the 1st Milton group and this widened the Milton group’s horizons greatly – camping in this area with our troop and later finding their way, unaccompanied by adults, to the big city. After joining the Milton boys, the Lone Patrol Boy Scouts went with them to the big Easter camps at Yandina and Murphey’s Creek. The experience was an important feature of growing up.
On weekends Lyle, Raymond, Bill Houghton and Ken Gold spent a lot of time exploring the creeks and mountains in the district. The creek was a particular attraction and they seldom had use for swimming togs. On one occasion while swimming near the road crossing in the nude as usual, a car full of tourists stopped to admire the scenery. As they would not move on the boys were forced to swim a hundred yards up stream and around a corner of the creek before creeping back through the bushes to their clothes to get dressed.
Few students of Mt Samson School ever passed the grade 7 Scholarship exam, but most of them went on to try to catch up in city boarding schools. Lyle had to do his secondary schooling the hard way by catching the morning railmotor at the 23 mile gates and getting off at Central Station in order to board a tram to State High School in South Brisbane. By the time he arrived he would have missed the first lesson or two. He would catch the railmotor home at five o’clock and arrive home after six. It is no wonder that he dropped out before the end of the usual two year secondary school period.
Lyle joined his father and brother Raymond on the dairy farm. They branched out into pineapple production on newly acquired land. At one stage Lyle sought to branch out on his own as a vegetable farmer on a leased property at Redland Bay, but he returned to Samsonvale when Raymond was killed in an unfortunate tractor accident.
Lyle joined the social life of the district by playing regular Saturday tennis on the courts that were part of Gold’s old farm. When a Junior Farmers Club was established in Samsonvale, Lyle was our first Secretary and continued in the club until he became too old to be a member. He always attended our local dances but never danced. He was content to spend the nights yarning to friends who gathered at these important social gatherings.
The 1950’s and 60’s brought great changes to agriculture as horses were replaced with tractors and a range of machinery to go with them; electricity was connected; milking machines and refrigerated milk storage units were installed and Ken and Lyle moved to improved pastures; irrigation and artificial insemination of the dairy herds. These improvements were the subject of long conversations and machinery was shared to economise.
Lyle’s and Ken’s time as neighbouring farmers came to an end when the North Pine dam swallowed up their adjoining farms. Ken moved to the city. Lyle moved a few miles up stream to Kobble where he continued to live a hardworking life and enjoyed his retirement in the new house he built on his property.
We will miss him. Farewell Lyle.
