On Tuesday, February 16, 2021, Janet (née McGregor) McKenzie, wife of Ron, and mother of Sue, born 1965, Stuart (dec) born 1967, and Libby, born 1969, passed away at the age of 80.
Jan was born on May 16, 1940 at Wingham, to parents Alexander (Alec) and Morac Commens.
At the time Alec Commens was working at the Commercial Bank of Sydney in Wingham, where the family lived for some years.
The family later moved to Murwillumbah.
An only child, Jan possessed an adventurous, fighting spirit from a very early age.
She often went along with the family to visit her grandparents at the old Commens farm near Mount Victoria.
Jan loved to wander around with one of the dogs and a mattock thrown over her shoulder, and it would not be an unusual sight for her to come home with a rabbit or two.
One day Jan was allowed to walk up the main street of Murwillumbah on her own.
A somewhat inebriated fellow approached her, and true to her fighting spirit, Jan promptly stamped hard on his foot and ran away.
Upon returning home and regaling her mother with the story, though this would have evoked pride in this spirited little girl’s actions, Jan was never allowed to walk on her own again.
When Jan’s father moved to his first management position of the Commercial Bank at Mandurama, this was where, to Jan’s delight, she was the proud owner of her first pony.
This pony was not the finest looking animal, but he was in possession of an excellent temperament and Jan loved him dearly. His name was Darky.
Jan would cause her mother quite some worry at times when Jan and Darky, true to his name, would set off on an adventure for the day and arrive home well after dark.
Jan had very fond memories of life at Mandurama.
The next move for the family came when her father’s work took him to Charleville in Queensland.
At the time the family believed they would be living in Queensland for the rest of her father’s working life, so a reservation was made for Jan to be booked into the Fairholme School in Toowoomba.
The journey to Charleville was quite an event with no bitumen or gravel roads, and the family had to traverse tracks which would stray away from and join up again with the ‘main’ road.
Charleville at the time had two water systems due to the artesian bore system that supplied the town.
One half of the town had hot water and the other half cold water.
After having enjoyed her time in the primary school at Mandurama with only twenty students attending the entire school, Jan was in for a complete change when at Charleville she was installed into a class of 80.
Jan still had two years of primary school to complete, and she would always say that she felt this change of schools ruined her education.
Once Jan transitioned to boarding school at Fairholme, she would commute home in the school holidays via railway on the Western Mail.
Life at Charleville was a big change for the family.
It was a rather wild and woolly town in those days, but Jan has fond memories of the family’s friendship with a local family who were members of the local Flying Doctors team.
The move to Charleville, however, did not turn out to be the family’s final destination. Alec’s next career move came along – to the Commercial Bank in Quirindi, NSW.
Jan, continuing with her education at Fairholme, would regularly spend many trips on the North West mail run train returning home for school holidays.
Jan recalled the story of her arrival one night at Quirindi at 3am in the morning.
When the train stopped for Jan to disembark, the guard was asleep at the time and the doors of the train were locked.
Alec was frantically alerting the guards at the station before the train took off again, and Jan eventually disembarked safely.
Nonetheless this event caused consternation within the family for quite a while.
After leaving Fairholme, Jan began studying nursing at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney.
Jan loved nursing and became a devoted student with a passion for all manner of medical matters.
This passion remained for the rest of Jan’s life, and to the amusement of family a visit to the doctor would entail Jan giving instructions on what was ailing her and what the prescription should be.
When she had completed her training, Jan’s focus changed to obstetrics, and she became a midwife.
It was around this time that Jan met her future husband Ron, at a 21st birthday party held in Tamworth.
Ron was also working in Sydney at the time, as a surveyor.
In 1962 the couple became engaged, and they were married on March 28, 1963.
Both Ron and Jan wished to move away from Sydney and Ron wanted to keep surveying.
The bush seemed an ideal solution and being familiar with the territory, in 1964 the couple decided to head north west.
After much consideration of which town to choose, Ron and Jan settled on Narrabri.
It did not take them long to realise they had chosen the right town, as they very quickly made many life-long friends.
The couple’s move to Narrabri was quite eventful.
They were breaking the journey by calling on Jan’s parents in Tamworth to stay the night.
Jan was following behind Ron in a little Morris when Ron lost sight of her.
When he turned around to find her, Jan said “the car just stopped, and I think it’s on fire”.
Ron took a chance and lifted the bonnet.
Sure enough, there was a tiny fire low down in the engine.
Jan leant down and blew it out.
The car started again and ran very well for a couple of years before being traded in for a Mini.
True to form, Jan always prided herself on being a strong woman.
The road between Turrawan and Narrabri West was under construction at the time, and with no culverts the road would be covered with water at the gullies after rain.
Jan would always insist on getting herself through the deepest ones, often with an audience, no doubt waiting for her to get stuck.
She never did.
Accommodation was very scarce and hard to find in those days.
Ron and Jan began their new country life living in a closed-in side verandah.
They had just a bed and cooking facilities and shared the bathroom in the main house.
This arrangement worked reasonably well until the lady owner of the house went away and left the bathroom locked.
Another problem arose when Jan was given a puppy.
One day the dog chased the landlady’s cat straight through the closed back gauzed door.
Luckily, this was temporary accommodation and in a matter of days the couple found a new flat to rent.
By now Ron had established his surveying office in The Courier building.
As Jan was not nursing at the time she decided to have a go at plan-drawing, although she had never attempted this before.
Jan was delighted when the Lands Office accepted her drafts.
After renting the flat for 18 months they were able to build a house.
With Ron’s surveying business going well, the couple approached the bank and looked at houses they felt they could afford.
The bank manager was more than accommodating and advised Ron and Jan to build a house instead, and this they did, happily living in the new house in Spencer Street for some years.
Two of their three children, Sue and Stuart were born during this time.
Jan started her interest in community organisations with the local pre-school.
When the decision was made to build the first pre-school in Narrabri, Jan took on the job of planning, and together with builder Len Palmer she went on to help supervise the building of it in Maitland Street.
Unfortunately, this building was heavily flooded in the 1971 flood.
Land was later found in Narrabri West and the building was moved there where it still stands today.
Ron and Jan’s children all attended the pre-school.
Eventually the opportunity arose to purchase a farm, ‘Alkeringa’.
Jan loved her life at ‘Alkeringa’, looking after various animals and rescuing injured animals, such as koalas and kangaroos which involved not just simply nursing them back to health but also having them toilet trained – and these animals would enjoy the luxury of the family home.
Dogs, cats, and chooks would all be part of the menagerie.
Horses were also a big part of family life, with the children attending pony camps and Jan devoting countless hours to the Narrabri Pony Club.
Jan became interested in breeding horses.
This necessitated frequent trips to and from a service stallion.
The foals would be broken in and later seen in the Narrabri Show or at Pony Club rallies.
Jan spent many hours with the young horses, partly because she loved them and most importantly, so that they would be easier to handle.
During the 1974 floods, Jan and several other locals assisted the flood relief program by leaving their homes to camp in at the government office block in Maitland Street.
They provided medical supplies, nursing and other flood relief needs to stranded members of the community.
Jan would recall being collected at the offices each morning by the town grader and transported through flood waters over to Narrabri West to help those in need.
Jan was involved in and passionate about the Narrabri district community.
She was on many committees, often serving terms as president.
These committees included the Narrabri Pre-school, Inner Wheel, the Narrabri Public School P & C, the hospital auxiliary, and the Narrabri Show committee where Jan was secretary for many years.
Many locals will recall how Jan established a very prominent and successful event in Narrabri – Farmcraft.
Farmcraft attracted a wide audience, bringing visitors into the district from all over NSW and as far afield as Queensland.
Other organisations Jan was involved in included the Narrabri Show Society, the Narrabri Swimming Club, the Historical Society and ADFAS.
The family recalls how Jan was a born leader and when it came to organising anything at all, she was indeed, very good at it.
Although, to the occasional amusement of the children, Jan’s ‘my way or the highway’ attitude sometimes got her into trouble.
Jan was extremely interested in her family history and spent time researching her family tree.
She wrote several books relating to her family history.
Jan also wrote a book about the history of the Narrabri Hospital in which she held a great interest.
One day the opportunity arose to open a saddlery shop, and having always wanted to run her own business, Jan took to the task.
For the next five years the saddlery shop became a hub and there would often be a collection of horse enthusiasts sitting in the shop having a good old yarn.
This business was sold when Ron and Jan decided to embark on a trip around Australia with their caravan.
The couple saw most of Australia and travelled overseas numerous times.
Overseas trips included Nova Scotia, Dorset, UK, and Scotland, where much of Jan’s family history originated.
At one point, the entire family were in the UK at the same time and enjoyed travels together.
Ron and Jan hosted Rotary foreign exchange students in their home and Jan loved this opportunity, keeping in touch with students for most of her life and visiting some of the families when travelling in the UK.
With Ron a dedicated member of Narrabri Rotary, Jan always supported the club’s endeavours.
When the old Narrabri Hospital building closed down, Jan was instrumental in organising the movement of furniture to the Philippines with the support of Rotary Club members and the local catholic priest at the time, Father Vic.
Ron and Jan’s son Stuart was stationed in the Philippines during this period, working as a hotel marketing manager.
Stuart was able to assist with the unloading of the furniture and reported back that it arrived safely and was very much appreciated by those in need.
Stuart returned to Australia and sadly passed away from melanoma in 2013.
Jan was a voracious reader and was a substantial contributor to the annual Rotary book sales.
An excellent swimmer, Jan was a regular at the Narrabri pool, and with goggles and flippers in hand, it was not unusual to find her swimming 26 laps with no trouble at all.
The family believe that Jan would have clocked up around 45,000km of swimming over the years.
With this passion in mind, Jan was instrumental in lobbying with the Narrabri Shire Council for the installation of the indoor heated pool.
Jan is survived by husband Ron, her daughter Sue and son-in-law Mark, daughter Libby and son-in-law Pete, and five grandchildren, Jack, Sammy, Nick, Jessica and Arthur.
She will be missed and remembered with affection by many in the Narrabri community for her strength of spirit, her compassion and generosity to others, a devoted and passionate supporter of the community, a keen swimmer, and a fabulous cook.
