Queensland Seniors Month celebrates the essential roles that older people play in our communities, let’s celebrate their contributions to our communities. Reporter MELISSA COLEMAN catches up with Pat Cannard.
Former Wallangarra resident Pat Cannard lived in the small town when the most important person ‘was the school teacher’.
She recalled that Wallangarra was a big storage camp for vehicles and an ammunition depot during the war.
Her father owned a transhipping business in town and when the war broke out he didn’t have to go overseas, instead because of his business expertise, he was ‘called up’ to serve in that capacity.
“Dad would ship goods for the Army and move soldiers between states.”
Soldiers would arrive at the Wallangarra train station to trestle tables filled with food.
“They would be fed then get on the next train to New South Wales.,” Mrs Cannard said.
Growing up in the rural town, she attended school until year 7, then went to boarding school.
“That’s where I did my junior’s certificate.”
“I went to work for a friend of my fathers’ in his office.
“I did that for a few years then I went to work for the Department of the Army,” she said.
Mrs Cannard met her husband, Ernie, at Wallangarra.
“He was sent to Wallangarra after a stint in Korea and I happened to be working there and it was love at first sight.”
They loved to go to dance halls.
“We used to travel widely to the dances.”
“It was about 12 miles to Tenterfield, 24 miles to Stanthorpe – there was always somebody with a car,” she recalled.
Ernie was a Korean veteran and soon after marrying, they began to travel around Australia.
“We spent eight months travelling the country in a caravan and we went everywhere,” Mrs Cannard said.
“We ended up staying in Brisbane for eight years and I was the State Manager’s Secretary – I only left because we wanted to travel Australia,” she said.
Mrs Cannard worked as a secretary for most of her life and raised five children.
She loved to write; she was part of a poetry group and a writer’s group.
It was at this time that Mrs Cannard and her husband moved into a retirement village.
One of her proudest achievements over that period was editing and publishing ‘The Digger’s Own Stories’ with the 3rd Battalion Royal Australian Regiment Corporation.
“I published the Digger’s books in the years of being there – it suited us to be still and stay at home to slowly chip away at it,” she said.
“We tried to cover everything in the book.”
“I edited stories on the Padres, attached troops from other countries, major speeches by politicians and Japanese war brides.
“It was mostly veterans of the Korean War, but there weren’t too many battle stories they wanted to share – it was all the funny experiences they had away from the war zones.”
