Mr Henry Allan Meyer OAM ( My Father)

 

Mr Henry Allan Meyer 20.9.1935 - 23.10.2025. This photo was taken during 1991 when he was President of the Australian Citrus Growers Federation.

He was the third generation of citrus growers with his Grandfather Philip Meyer planting citrus trees near Gayndah in 1914. His father Henry Harry Meyer moved to an area between Gayndah and Mundubbera called Philpott to continue growing citrus and run a dairy farm where he met and married Alice Kathleen Mitchell. They moved to a Coonambula Road property west of Mundubbera to continue farming there in 1941 as it was considered a better property and in 1945 the first citrus trees were planted, all 250 of them. 

My Dad's claim to fame at an early age was successfully burning down the boy's toilet at Riverleigh School by a misadventure with fire crackers.  He left school and attended Gatton College for further rural based education. Met his future wife Thelma Meredith at the age of 17, when she was 15 at the Annual Mundubbera Show Ball. Performed a year of National Service. Decided that Thelma was the girl for him a year later and if she didn't want to go out with him for their first official date in the Bedford Truck then she was not the girl for him. Luckily for myself and siblings she was quite happy to go in the Bedford Truck and they were married on the 31.8.1957 and 3 children were born during the late 1950's - 60s.

 The restored Bedford Truck.

 I can remember it as a blue colour. It was lovingly restored during the 2000's. I think this was the truck which as a 7 yr old I toppled off the back of when sweeping hay away after feeding cattle and the broom caught on the metal lip and I woke up in the Mundubbera Hospital with concussion a few hours later.

It was used as part of his funeral procession where we took him on a last tour of Mundubbera. He always said, we would take him for a last drive over the bridge and leave him over the other side. We did that Saturday 1.11.2025 and he has been re united with his beloved Thelma (Granny).

He was a very active farmer and lived through rapid changes in the citrus industry. He started out marketing fruit in wooden boxes with very little post harvest treatments to prolong shelf life. He saw cardboard cartons, washing, treating and waxing of fruit enter the post harvest treatments. He participated in exporting citrus to Japan, Canada and other markets. I can remember as a 16 year old when studying at university going along with my family one night to dinner on a container ship with the Captain. 

 Amazing what you find on the internet. A model of it. It was part of the Scan Austral Fleet later being sold to the US for military purposes. It was very interesting going on a guided tour of this while the older folk ate, drank and talked business. I currently am waiting on a shipment of fabric to arrive for Batik Fabrics Online via a container ship but wont be able to see it arrive.

Dad built most of the new equipment needed by learning to weld with the assistance of a local engineer Mr Kugel. A frequent visitor to the shed.

Mum and Dad worked the orchard for many years with my sister, brother and their partners and children until they decided to no longer carry on farming. My brother moved into the mining industry to satisfy his love of machinery, Mum and Dad retired to Mundubbera where according to him they sat in their dunrootin chairs and watched the traffic go by. My sister and husband continued running the farm for the new owners until they retired in 2018 to Bundaberg. 

I currently have 2 male cousins both carrying on the Meyer legacy of growing citrus, 1 in Mundubbera and 1 in Gayndah.

Today he is survived by 3 children, 3 in laws, 8 grandchildren, 5 grandchildren in law, and 13 great grand children. We certainly gave him a fitting farewell and he would have appreciated the final words Piss OFF, go to Buggery uttered at the end of his eulogy.  He spent hours trying to teach his grandchildren to say that phrase. 

I could regale you with many more stories but I wont. Thank you for allowing me to indulge some memories as I know this blog is supposed to be about quilts and fabrics but it is also about the person behind it.