Ronald Hedley Singleton (1926 - 2001)

Born 8 Mar 1926 in Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Margery (Breen) Singleton — married 22 Jan 1949 in Gunnedah, New South Wales, Australia

Descendants

Died 17 Dec 2001 at age 75 in Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Robyn Singleton [send private message]

Biography

~ Ronald's Story - in his own words. ~ (copied from original paper in Singleton family tree folder)

Date completed approximately 2000-2001.

You have your hair parted o the wrong side, I have not. Smack on chin-now that will teach you to pick on me, and this was my introduction to school. And just then the teacher came around the corner and collared me to stand alone in the corner of the yard, I was not impressed.

I spent two weeks in kindergarten and then two months in first class finally the rest of the year in second class. The next year I was moved to third class but was given fourth year work and the following year moved up to fifth grade. Finally a year in sixth grade completed my primary education and at the ripe old age of ten, entered secondary school.

Now school became more interesting with plenty of sport, which I reveled in and became very prominent although being the youngest and smallest was a bit of a handicap. I soon learnt to stand up to the bigger blokes, especially when they called me 'Singo the dingo.' I saw red and one of two ended with black eyes. However I enjoyed my time at school with the result I was never placed any less than third in my class.

At age fourteen I left and joined the PMG Department as telegraph messenger away out west at Walgett. This was the beginning of years of travel and working in different offices with plenty of study at night in my lonely room at the local pub or back after hours at the office practicing the mores code.

The wages weren't exactly generous being 25 bob a week while my board cost 30 bob so I was forced to hunt for dead wool on the stock routes and pick up bottles around town before others were out of bed. I managed quite well considering the opposition from the other young blokes who worked in the banks who were paid one bob less.

This regime would give the impression of an uneventful period but believe me this was not so. In fact the firs few years was very hard on families, the depression was at its worse and many a cold frosty morning I ran bare footed to the shops for our rations before school. Dad grew thousands of tomatoes that had to be covered at night then uncovered each morning. This meant very little time for school homework or anything else for that matter but we battled on. Mum and I fell for nearly all of this as Dad was away shearing and brother Lionel stayed with Mrs Smith while old cooker was away. It took many years to recover and that is why at 14 years old I left school to make my own way dad borrowed a fiver from his mate to deposit in the bank for me with instructions to use it but never to steal, a lesson I never forgot.

The year I started work coincided with world war two and things were somewhat chaotic with men being shifted all over the country so that we were all encouraged to fill in vacancies. By age 16 I had passed my Postal clerks exams and was also acting as Postmaster grade 2. I was appointed to Gunnedah as Postal Clerk but hardly ever spent much time there, I was used as relief for the whole district from Quirindi to Walgett and became known in every office big and small. The work was very interesting from paying military allotments etc to fixing guttering for pensioners in some small towns, they asked for help, and with most of the men away at the war the Postmaster was the handyman. I must admit it did have some advantages - I was very much in demand at the local dances on Saturday nights. In each town rugby was favoured and I made my mark playing half back.

While stationed in Gunnedah in 1943 I was able to join the Air training corps until age 17 years10 months when I enlisted in the RAAF aircrew. On the night we were supposed to leave for training camp the bloody manpower stopped me and I was forced to stay behind to handle the army telegrams as they were short of morse operators and I was considered as essential to the war effort. this lasted for another year until I was sent to Armidale to fill a gap there. I kept tormenting them with requests for release until finally they relented and I was able to make it into training camp in the last course for aircrew. After six months it was decided no more aircrew was needed and were offered re-muter to ground staff or demobilisation. I took a course in accounting but was sent to Marangaroo bomb dump while waiting for the course to start. One afternoon while loading a train with 500 lbs bombs a fool let a truck loaded with flare bombs, which explode if they receive a good bump, rolling down the loop at speed towards our truck. There were blokes running all ways to escape the blast but as we had no way of escaping the only hope was to stop it so I ran to meet it between it and our mobile crane but I must have slowed it enough as I am writing this now, although my left shoulder and spine never let me forget. I finally made it to Adelaide for my course in accounting then on to Melbourne to complete it. Having gained a perfect score of 100% they offered me a choice of stations anywhere in Australia not in a war zone so I chose Richmond where I was given the recovery depot to run besides audit of Equipment section. The work was very interesting and I probably would have stayed permanently only while on leave I spotted a beautiful blond leaving the theatre one night at home and since I new the young lady with her it was not very hard to arrange to meet her. Now after 54 years she is still with me, thank heaven.

On leaving the air force I returned to my job in the post office but they persisted in moving me around. My work became more interesting as now I belonged in the third division which allowed me to act as postmaster in the bigger offices. After Margery and I were married in 1949 I requested to be left in Gunnedah it being my appointed position, but they persisted in ordering me to relieve the post master in Narrabri so naturally I refused and handed in my resignation. I had a desire to go farming from about age four so eventually I started share farming. On reflection it would appear that very little time was spent in relaxation but we had a few weekends boating on the Torrens in Adelaide and played a bit of Rugby union. The RAF sent out their top team and I was selected to play on the wing in a combined services team and scored two run away tries before my spinal injuries took their toll and I could not finish the game as I wished but we did beat them. At home I tried out in the reserve team although it was a come down from always being in first grade, but once more I found that I had lost a lot of speed I was noted for so I gave league away.

After two more years share farming at Kelvin a soldier's block at Walabadah became available when the original drawer was murdered and his brothers would not have it on. Margery's father knew the family and negotiated a deal for us as I had the necessary certificate to take part in the scheme, and with his help we began our own farming and grazing adventure. It was a bare block and fully tested our resolve. I won't claim it was easy but we built a home, woolshed, garages and found water for stock besides miles of fencing. For almost all the nine years my only help was Margery and our first son John. When our second son Paul came along and my back pain was getting too much I employed a young man who could handle stock, but I sure had my work cut out trying to teach him anything else. We were tormented by stock thieves and lost thousands of pounds worth until one night there was a commotion in the corner paddock next to my neighbours so I fired a could shots with my 303 about two feet about where it was. It had the desired effect as I could hear a horse galloping towards the neighbour's house so I hopped into my car and flew around to give chase. On arrival his wife Peg met me and claimed Harvey was in bed but when he surfaced doing up his belt I told him I would not miss next time but would drive his belt buckle through him. He never gave me any trouble after this and the other blokes in Walabadah agreed never to bother that trigger-happy so and so again, soon I had full counts of sheep and cattle. Eventually the cold winters got the better of me and we decided to sell out and move back closer to home with the results we ended up at Mt View Curlewis a mixed farming enterprise. After a couple of years we were rewarded with another son Ian. there being eight years between him and the others it was decided that Ian would need a playmate and right on queue along came our fourth boy Tony. This presented another problem we would need a bigger place so we sold Mt View after six years and moved to Turon Park which was nearly twice as big but after nine years the boys were ready to spread out so we began entering the land ballots in Queensland. After a few disappointments we drew a block of cattle country 17500 acres and sold up once more. We soon learned all about hard work and isolation.

The day we arrived on the block Dad died so I had to leave Margery and three boys to go back to Gunnedah for the funeral. Paul had decided to stay in his job of accounting in Gunnedah. We stocked up with cattle and began clearing and fencing in between the building of a home, sheds and yards and trying to find water which wasn't salty. to top things off the cattle market collapsed and we could not have seen it through without the capital we brought with us and a lot of belt tightening. The slump lasted four years during which time we were able to hold out and build up our herd so that when it finally came good again we got out of trouble quickly. In the interim the mines department came looking for a town site and settled on our back paddock, the only one that we did not have to clear. the Lands Department insisted we surrender 2300 acres to the crown and we could not refuse so Capricorn Coal Co. compensated us 170,000 and proceeded to tear things about. to lessen some of the damage we contracted the clearing of the town also tracks for the surveyors and drillers, at least it paid for our two big dozers which we used to clear the rest of our country.

My health was not the best so Margery and I brought a nice brick home on 1500 acres of ground at Alton Downs near Rockhampton and I proceeded with an operation on my prostate. But our local surgeon after two tries decided to pass me onto a specialist in Brisbane with instructions for me to fix up my affairs. It was not a happy thought to leave with but it all turned out o.k. we were having trouble accommodating all the male cattle that John and Ian bred up at Turon Downs so we offered Bloomsdale for sale and to my surprise we aggregated 900,000 which gave us a good profit of 600,000. Our next move was to Karingal a beut piece of cattle country on the Dawson river.

Karingal proved to be unable to handle all the cattle from Turon Downs so we had to let it go also, but we had enough of moving so we bought 8600 acres at Leichhardt Park one of the best fattening blocks around. We stuck our necks out at 1,125,000 but it has paid off. When my health began playing up again we convinced Paul to take a share in Leichhardt Park and things were a bit easier for me. One of my worst decisions then was to have a very serious operation on my spine, Pagets disease had taken hold where it was injured in my bomb loading accident years ago. The surgeon cut a window into the spine and cut out a good amount of the Pagets inside and out and it seemed ok until on the day after the nurse forgot to give me blood pressure pills and I had a blood vessel burst in my brain. After three hours they found me but too late to ease the stroke which followed. Now I have very little use of my right leg and none at all of my right arm besides being unable to stand upright or touch my feet. I can however talk now although my words are jumbled a bit. You would thing this would be enough punishment for any bad deeds but in 1999 I discovered cancer in my lymph glands and have had treatment with a new drug called Mabthera also five weeks of radium. there appears to be no sign of leukemia now so here's hoping it has been held at bay just like the cancer in my prostate.

We have split up Leichhardt Park for Paul and Ian and Turon Downs has been transferred to John while Tony who is an Engineer with Shell Coal will inherit out home in Rockhampton that is the best I can do for now.

- BIOGRAPHY -

Author: Unknown. Date: Unknown.

Ronald was born in 1926. He passed away in 2001.

Ronald was the second son of Joseph and Thelma Singleton.

After completing high school at the age of 14, he left school and joined the PMG department. At the age of 16 was relieving postmaster at a number of towns in the country area of New South Wales.

In 1943, at the age of 17 he enlisted in the RAAF aircrew. However, he was held back for communication duties, mastering morse code.

During his time in the air force, he was injured in an accident involving a truckload of bombs. He damaged his shoulder and spine. After this event, he turned to accountancy and after leaving the air force, returned to the post office.

In 1949, he married Margery (Breen) Singleton. He left the PMG and moved onto the land. Beginning with share farming, then moving to their own soldier settlement block. In time, progressing to larger farming and grazing properties in New South Wales. A family of four boys was raised while in New South Wales.

In 1972, the moved to the area now known as Middlemount, Queensland. Taking up 'Turon Downs' as a brigalow development scheme ballot grazing property.

Over the following years, he acquired a number of other properties, finally consolidating on 'Leichhardt Park'.

In 1991, Ron suffered a stroke after an operation on his back, resulting in paralysis of his right hand side. Taking away the ability to drive his property machinery.

In December 1995, on doctor's advice, Ron and Margery moved to Rockhampton, Queensland, Australia to be closer to medical facilities.

Ron passed away on Monday 17th December 2001 due to renal failure.

^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ Unsourced family tree handed down to Robyn Singleton.

"Australia Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802-2005," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGVR-3J3F : 3 March 2021), Ronald Hedley Singleton, 17 Dec 2001; from "Australia, Cemetery Inscriptions, 1802-2005," database with images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : n.d.) citing Death, citing Jim and Alison Rogers : n.d. Various cemeteries, Australia; FHL microfilm .