September 27, 1922 - July 31, 2020

Max Reginald Wright was my father, and father to my four siblings, Ken, Sandra, Robyn and Philip.

Max was the great grandson of John Wright, first white settler and founder of Tuncurry and on his grandmother Ina Inez's side, the great great grandson of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet.

Max's birth certificate says he was born in Sydney to Edgar and Jean Wright on September 27, 1922, although some family members believe he was born in Nabiac.

Max was the eldest of five children, the others siblings being Fay, now in a nursing home in Sydney, Milton or Mick deceased, Ina deceased and Sid deceased.

At the time of his death at Tallwoods, Max was 97.

He survived his wife of 73 years, June, by just one month.

June passed away on the July 3, 2020, while in John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle.

Soon after Max's birth in 1922 his parents returned to Tuncurry where his father Edgar worked in John Wright and Sons Shipyards until in 1924 Edgar and Jean moved to Dyers Crossing to his father, Sidney Garden and Ina Inez Wright's property, Silverfern.

Silverfern, established in 1892, was originally part of Sidney Garden's father John Wright's large sawmilling operations at Avalon, an offshoot of John Wright's large shipyards and sawmilling businesses in Tuncurry.

Silverfern was sold in 1925 to the Australian Repatriation Department for re-settlement of War Veterans but Edgar and his young family continued living there between 1924 and 1929 after which time they moved initially to nearby Bracken Ridges, Leland Wright's property, before Edgar purchased Beau Vista in 1931 from his brother, Claude Wright.

Claude subsequently moved to the Craven Plateau west of Gloucester.

Beau Vista adjoined Bracken Ridges at the end of Wright's Lane and sadly in early November last year in the rampaging Hillville fire the old Beau Vista homestead burned down.

Following the sale of Silverfern, Sydney Garden and Ina Inez Wright purchased Logan Leigh a prime dairying property on the eastern side of the Wallamba River at Nabiac.

When Silverfern was sold the property was broken up into small holdings and several of Sidney Garden Wright's 10 children were offered properties on the provision they worked for their father unpaid for two years.

Claude Wright acquired Beau Vista, Leland Bracken Ridges, Warren Roo Hills and Byron Ridgelands.

Ridgelands is today the only remaining property in the area still in the hands of the Wrights.

Max's childhood years were spent exploring the rainforest, or brush as it was known then, in and around Silverfern, and Beau Vista.

Max's father Edgar, and his father before him, Sydney Garden, had a strong interest in beekeeping and it was these influences that saw Max's love of bees develop from age 10 into his lifelong passion.

Max attended school at Koribar Central School just east of Dyers Crossing and to get there was a long four mile walk, bike ride, or as he got older, horse ride.

When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred Max was just seven years old and his early years of schooling were during the worst years of the Great Depression with the Australian economic recovery taking until 1939, after which time Australia found itself embroiled in the Second World War.

Max left school at 12 years of age and by 13, in 1935, he was working for George Weller on his property Riverview, on Dargavilles Road, just south of Dyers Crossing, where he was doing general farm duties, including dairying.

He then went to work for Mick Weller in Nabiac where he assisted with the operation of Nabiac's first electricity plant.

Max would start up the diesel generator at 6pm and turn it off at 10pm.

Max also worked with Mick Weller making wooden window frames as well as galvanised corrugated iron tanks along with from some mechanical work in Mick Wellers Garage.

Max recalled the first car ever to come into Nabiac and interestingly a week before he died he took his first ride in his grandson's Tesla 3 electric car.

During his early teenage years Max continued to follow his lifelong passion for beekeeping but he also worked on farms assisting with timber harvesting, sleeper cutting, fencing, dairying and cropping.

In his later teenage years Max continued his beekeeping interests while working on farms and also assisted his brother Mick who had a truck to haul timber and railway sleepers to the railway station in Taree or the Port of Tuncurry.

In 1941, Max was by now 19 years of age. His cousin Jack Wright, who lived at Avalon, influenced Max to join the Army's Lighthorse Brigade and he was initially stationed at Maitland and Gresford.

With Australia now deeply involved in World War 2, as the war progressed Max was transferred to army bases in Northern and South East Queensland and later to the Liverpool area of Sydney.

His training was as a Nurse Orderly caring for returning wounded soldiers.

When Max's unit was tasked to Borneo he was unable to go having contracted Mumps.

It was not until April 1946 with the war now over, that Max saw overseas service.

He volunteered to take up a nurse orderly role on the Medical Ship Manunda tasked to Hiroshima in Japan to repatriate Australian and New Zealand prisoners of war back to Australia.

Before I recall a few of Max's wartime stories I'll backtrack to 1943 when Max, on a furlough trip from his base camp in Sydney, came home to Forster where he met June Chapman, who was subsequently to become his wife.

June's best friend Nancy Wright and her parents had invited June to travel to Forster with them for a holiday.

Nancy was the daughter of Warren and Gwen Wright, Warren being Max's uncle.

When Max was 22 on another trip to Forster in 1944, Max became involved in a rescue on Forster Main Beach where a 14 year old boy had been attacked by a shark.

Fred Wright, who was on the beach with Max at the time, recalls that he saw everyone running out of the water and Max running in.

The victim had been brought to shore by several rescuers including Max.

Unfortunately the boy later had one leg amputated with the other leg recovering after being badly bitten.

Max had met June in 1943 and they were able to see each other when he got leave while he was based in Sydney.

The relationship prospered and when Max returned from Japan in June of 1946 they were married in Wingham at the Latter Saints Church on June 7, 1946.

June was just one week away from her 19th birthday.

Their marriage was a long and harmonious one of 73 years, producing five children.

I will digress here to relate a couple of stories Max told me some years ago about his Hiroshima Trip.

When he arrived in Hiroshima in April 1946 Max encountered a scene of absolute devastation with the city flattened.

He took many photographs which he developed himself aboard ship.

Max was never a larrikin, however, some of his Manunda mates were.

Max somewhat ashamedly recalls one day hitchhiking from Kure to Hiroshima with three or four mates.

One of his mates was Snowy.

Snowy was a real larrikin, tall, wiry and blonde.

When they saw an American truck approaching they flagged the Japanese driver down.

Of course these Australian servicemen had little respect for the Japanese following some of the wartime atrocities committed in the name of war.

Snowy being the lad of the group climbed up into the truck cabin and pushed the driver out, jumped behind the wheel and took off.

The others jumped up on to the back of the truck.

One early version dad told me was that Snowy rolled the truck into a rice field and fortunately they were all thrown clear into the mud uninjured before hitchhiking into Hiroshima.

Max also related a story about one of his patients, a New Zealand lieutenant who sadly had lost his mind as a result of his prisoner of war experiences.

He needed to be locked in a cell and often needed to be put in a straightjacket to protect himself and his carers.

Max and his mate Bob Langdown were responsible for this soldier.

On many occasions while placing the soldier in the straightjacket the soldier would tell them he had a gun in the cell.

Max and Bob searched the cell after every such threat but never found a gun.

When they returned to Sydney and the soldier was leaving the ship he turned toward Max and Bob and in his hand was a revolver.

He smiled and called out, "See I told you I had a gun".

Fortunately he was not in a mood to fire it that day and he was disarmed and led off down the gang plank.

Max never saw Bob Langdown again after the war however when I posted a photo on my website his son saw it and contacted me, just one day after Bob died.

He asked where Max lived and was taken aback when I said Tuncurry as his father had been a dairy farmer at Hannam Vale since the end of the war.

While unfortunately Max and Bob Langdown never reconnected after the war his son subsequently met Max in Tuncurry.

Following Max's discharge from the army, one day short of being awarded a Gold Card, he settled in Wingham and after his marriage to June they moved to the corner of Possum Brush Road, then to Nabiac where Max resumed his beekeeping interests.

I was born in 1948 and in 1949 Max and June moved to Dulwich Hill in Sydney where Max worked for the CSIRO for six months before returning to Nabiac.

There he purchased an Austin truck in order to carry out general cartage while also returning to beekeeping.

Ken was born in 1950 and in January 1951 Max and June moved from Nabiac to Edgar and Jean's new house at 141 High St, Taree, but when Edgar and Jean moved off their property at Tinonee and in to Taree Max and June purchased and moved to 102 Cornwall St, Taree with Sandra and Robyn born while living there.

In 1958, with Max and June outgrowing Cornwall Street, they moved to 41 Chatham Avenue, Taree, where Philip was born.

From the early 1950s Max and a friend, Geoff Cooper, a builder from Pacific Palms, joined forces and surveyed and pegged rutile, ilmenite and zircon mining leases basically from Hawks Nest to Crowdy Head as well as all of Nabiac Aerodrome area which Max knew well having held beekeeping leases there from before the war.

Max also held Beekeeping Leases in Kiwarrak State Forest for almost 70 years.

Unfortunately their mining leases returned little income as several big foreign mining companies moved in and pegged over top of their leases, threatening them with long legal battles if they did not withdraw.

In the late 1950s Max began a painting business although beekeeping was always in the background.

Among Max's more notable contracts was painting the Wallis Lake Bridge in early 1959.

During this period Max was progressively building up his beehive numbers and eventually was running up to 700 hives and effectively a commercial beekeeper mainly operating in Kiwarrak State Forest, Nabiac Aerodrome and Harrington but also migrating bees to Walcha, Tamworth, Barraba, Kulnura and other places depending on the honey flows.

Ken, Stan Wilson and I spent many hours working in the bees and in the honey extracting van during our teenage years often travelling away from home on weekends.

Max was always a worker and when honey flows were on he would be at the bees from 5:30am, returning to his painting jobs by 7:30am, then back out to the bees after work not getting home until well after dark many nights.

The drought years of the mid 60s were tough years with five children in high school at once.

Painting jobs were few and far between and honey flows were impacted by drought.

Nevertheless none of the children suffered for lack of opportunity in sport nor in education and June always found a way to put food on the table.

During the 1960s Max was for a time the Commodore of the Taree Aquatic Festival Association and was very much involved with the popular Australia Day long weekend speedboat racing events on the Manning River.

In 1966 Max's wartime mate Phil Gosling asked Max if he would be prepared to build and manage an Acrylic Perspex Refining factory in Taree.

Max accepted the challenge and built the entire factory from scratch while educating himself about the various processes required to successfully operate the plant.

The site near Taree Railway Station soon proved too small and by 1968 it was decided to move operations to St Marys in Sydney where a much larger plant was built with Max managing that factory until he retired in 1986.

Over those years he became a leading expert in the refining of Acrylic Perspex as well as a number of other chemicals.

Max remained actively beekeeping during this entire 18 year period while living at 16 Emily Street, Mt Druitt, in Sydney's west, often travelling out of Sydney to bee sites on weekends.

On his retirement at age 60 in 1986, Max and June returned to live on his then 10 acre property at Failford just north of Nabiac, having purchased the property in 1977.

Max was an extremely fit and healthy 60 year old when he retired and beekeeping once again became his full time job.

He and June soon established a large number of hives and good connections to local point of sale establishments where he could sell his honey under the name of Honeygold Apriaries.

Max also maintained a huge vegetable garden and harvested mangoes from their 50 odd trees on the Failford property.

The mangoes were boxed up and sold to local green grocery stores who also carried their honey.

It was during this time from 1986 that Max put his normally creative and inventive mind to work trying to find ways to extract Medi Honey from his beehives located on Nabiac Aerodrome.

The Leptospermum trees at Nabiac Aerodrome had been planted by the rutile mining companies and were seedlings grown in their North Coast nurseries and brought down to Nabiac to be used to revegetate areas once mining operations ceased.

Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, Max never found a way to successfully commercially extract the very heavy Medi Honey although he did nevertheless make very good money from selling all that he could produce.

Max was full time beekeeping right through till the Department of Main Roads resumed his property at Failford in 2007 for highway lane widening.

Max was 84 at that time.

During this period of living in Failford and later in Tuncurry at 2 Eden Close, Max and June became stalwarts of the Great Lakes Historical Society, ultimately being recognised in 2011 with life membership for services to the museum.

The museum honoured both of them by naming their main room 'June's Room' and the outdoor machinery shed display area 'Max's Shed' in recognition of their more than 30 year contribution to the museum.

When Max and June moved to Tuncurry in 2007 amazingly Max continued to maintain his flower and vegetable gardens until he was 97, when it became necessary for them to sell up and move into Estia Nursing Home in Forster where they had lived from March.

Max and June leave five children and 13 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren with two in utero and a legacy of family unity that will stand the family in good stead for many many years to come.

June Wright

June 15, 1928 - July 3, 2020

June died from complications arising from surgery in John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle on Friday, July 3, 2020 at approximately 6:50 pm.

She had just recently turned 92 and had up until the surgery, apart from some asthma and frailty, been in good health.

June leaves a significant family legacy that can never be erased.

There is no doubt of her place in history.

She was arguably the most significant family matriarch the Wright family has ever known, even by the high bar set by Catherine and Ina Inez who both raised 10 children in early Tuncurry.

June was a facilitator of family unity in ways very few before her had sought to be.

She brought family together at every opportunity and was able to contact any member of the family within a few minutes should such a request be made of her.

As I recall the organisation she put into the 1975 Wright family reunion is just one example of her commitment to family.

June and husband of 73 years Max were life members of the Great Lakes Historical and Maritime Museum, with June holding the position of secretary for more than 30 years, while Max's contribution over a similar time frame was as the fix it man, restoring tools and other old items to a standard where they could be publically exhibited.

Just a few years ago the museum bestowed the honour of naming two rooms after them as a tribute to their long service to the museum.

Perhaps June's most enduring achievements were as co-author and author of a number of important books and numerous publications which told the story of the area's history.

Her major book was The History of Forster, a large bound volume which is available from the museum.

When veteran local historian Mick Constable died in 1984, June stepped up to the plate and continued his foundational work, importantly, being able to bring significant amounts of local history into print.

In 2000, June was recognised as a recipient of a Bicentennial Commonwealth of Australia Medal for services to the Great Lakes Community.

She had also been nominated on a shortlist as Great Lakes Citizen of the year on a number of occasions.

June's enduring legacy, as far as the family is concerned, will be that she wrote things down.

Over many years she meticulously recorded the family ancestry from her own Fisher family line to the entire Wright family line.

Before she died she had joined a number of online ancestry websites and from age 90 on was in the process of transferring her database to an online format.

I'll now turn our attention to some details of June's complex but ultimately long and productive life, mostly as written by her and left for us to detail here today.

June's Life

June was born on June 15, 1928, the daughter of Olive Maud Fisher at the home of Ernest and Madge Fisher of Mayfield, Newcastle.

When Olive's sister Ruby Chapman died unexpectedly Olive assumed the additional role of looking after her late sister's four children so they moved to Armidale for three years where the family was managing the Empire Hotel.

Difficult family circumstances resulted in Ruby's children Gloria, 7, Joseph, 5, and Austin 3 needing to go to live with their paternal aunt Lizzie in Narellan.

Ruby's other daughter, nine month old Myra was sent to live with her paternal aunt Ada King at Albion Park.

June was reared under the name of Chapman and at age three when Arthur Chapman passed away in 1931 the family moved to Narellan joining the other children.

June began her schooling in 1934 at Camden Primary School and as June recalled she travelled to school each day on a train known as 'Daisy'.

In 1939 the war started and her father joined the army, first stationed at Walgrove then overseas.

The family moved to Edith Street, Leichhardt and June began school at Leichhardt Primary School for just one year before in 1941 she moved to Leichhardt Home Science School.

June was intelligent and did quite well at high school being appointed a prefect in 1942 and vice captain in 1943.

Unfortunately, 1943 was to be a difficult year for June as after a tonsillectomy she developed asthma and by August was advised to have her appendix removed.

The resultant wait for a bed caused her to miss her Intermediate Certificate exams so she left school and began work as an apprentice tailoress with Greathead & Co in Surry Hills.

Subsequently, after months of treatment at the North Shore Asthma Clinic, doctors advised June to leave the clothing industry but being wartime and jobs difficult to find she remained with Greathead & Co until 1945.

Meeting Max

Life took a new turn for June during 1943 when her best friend Nancy Wright and parents Warren and Gwen took her on a holiday to Forster.

There she was introduced to Max Wright, eldest son of Warren's brother Edgar.

From 1941 Max had been a medical orderly in the army having been based in Queensland and later at Liverpool in Sydney which gave them occasional opportunities to spend time together until April 1946 when Max was assigned to the ship Manunda tasked to repatriate Australian prisoners of war back to Australia from Japan and the Pacific Islands.

On June 25, 1946, following Max's return from Japan, and subsequent discharge from the army, Max and June became engaged.

While Max had resumed living in Wingham, June had by this time moved to Taree to undertake a nursing qualification.

With June now just a week away from her 19th birthday, on June 7, 1947 they were married in the Latter Day Saints Church in Wingham after original plans to be married at the Green Cathedral at Forster were impacted by wet weather.

Following their marriage they settled in a home on the corner of Possum Brush Road from where Max went into full time beekeeping.

Children

With the birth of their first child imminent they moved to Nabiac where eldest son Terry was born in December 1948.

In 1949 June and Max moved to Dulwich Hill in Sydney where Max worked for the CSIRO for six months before returning to Nabiac where he purchased an Austin truck and began working as a carrier while still working bees part time.

In November 1950 second son Ken was born in Taree.

In January 1951 June, Max and the growing family moved to 141 High Street, Taree, to a house recently purchased by Edgar and Jean Wright, Max's parents.

When Edgar and Jean moved into their home, June and Max purchased a house at 102 Cornwall Street with Robyn being born in October of 1953.

Max by this time had established a painting contracting business in partnership with Maurie Eldridge, employing several men.

By 1958 the family was outgrowing their Cornwall Street home so June and Max purchased a house at 41 Chatham Avenue, Chatham. Their last born child Philip was born in January that year.

It was during this period from 1958, with five children in various schools that June became very active in community organizations including teaching swimming, where she taught hundreds of children to swim until 1967.

June was also heavily involved as secretary of the rapidly growing Chatham Hockey Club.

When Terry started high school in 1961, June also became active in the P&C.

Ken started high school in 1963 and Sandra became part of the first cohort of students at the new Chatham High School in 1964, eventually becoming school captain.

June meanwhile became involved in the Chatham High canteen and was the first president of the Mothers Club and secretary of the P&C.

Robyn began high school in 1965.

With the drought severely impacting the family income during 1966, a wartime friend Phil Gosling asked Max to establish an Acrylic Perspex refining factory in Taree. Max accepted the challenge and the factory operated from premises on Whitbread Street Taree near the railway.

The business did well and by 1968 it was necessary to relocate and enlarge the capacity of the factory closer to markets at Links Road, St Marys in Sydney's west.

In early 1968, Terry headed off to Wollongong Teachers College to study Physical Education teaching and Ken did the School Certificate exam at Chatham High.

June and Max moved to Emily St, Old Mount Druitt from where Max began the process of building the new Acrylic Perspex refining factory at St Marys.

Ken began a toolmakers apprenticeship and Sandra and Robyn enrolled at Doonside High School while Philip attended Colliton Primary School.

In 1969 Sandra began a fashion course at East Sydney Tech College with Robyn completing her HSC in 1970 after which she took up a job in the Commonwealth Public Service.

Philip completed the School Certificate in 1975 and became apprenticed to Max's mate Phil Gosling as a Dental Prosthetist graduating in 1979.

June's Employment

With all the children except Philip now either doing training courses or working, June finally had time to explore work opportunities herself.

She took a job at Granville Railway Station Bookshop while Max continued to expand the Acrylic Refining Factory business.

Both Max and June continued to work part time with their beekeeping sideline.

In 1971, June left the Railway Bookshop and went to work at Porters Saw Factory in St Marys as a process worker however in 1973 an opportunity arose for work as a security officer at Waltons Department Stores in Blacktown, Parramatta and Penrith.

In 1982 with the beekeeping business growing June found it necessary to finish up at Waltons and devote all her efforts to beekeeping.

Carrying 60lb honey tins around never phased her nor the obvious irritations of daily bee stings.

During the 1970s and 80s Max became a leading expert in the field of Acrylic Perspex refining and with the St Marys Factory now in the ownership of his cousin Bill Wright, another Dental Prosthetist, Max finally decided to retire in 1986.

Move to Failford

June and Max left Sydney after 20 years and relocated to their incomplete new home on their rural acreage block at 6 Pacific Highway, Failford, near Nabiac.

Beekeeping finally became their sole enterprise, apart from growing mangoes and the most productive vegetable garden one could ever imagine.

Life was idyllic here at Failford and beekeeping sustained them until in 2007 the Department of Main Roads resumed their land, making them a respectable financial offer which duly allowed them to move into Tuncurry to 2 Eden Close, at the end of South Street.

It was during this period from 1986 that June and Max became tireless workers for the Great Lakes Historical Society with June's role as secretary subsequently spanning over 30 years.

June's life was full of enduring achievements, her stoicism, determination, tenacity and meticulousness are traits she has passed down to her children.

June learned to be resilient from an early age and took adversity in her stride.

Any committee she ever sat on benefited from her extraordinary capacity for hard work as well as her exceptional organisational skills.

Above all else June valued family relationships and like Edgar and Jean, Max's parents before them, June and Max had five children, all present here today.

Collectively those five children have produced 13 grandchildren and 17 great grandchildren with 2 great grandchildren in utero at the time of her death.

June was particularly proud of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

She was very fortunate through her long life to have had such regular loving and meaningful relationships with them all.

Please symbolically, put your hands together for one last clap.

June Wright, a purposeful life well lived.

Our amazing much loved mum, may you rest in peace.