Obituary – Richard (Dick) Ivo Eather – 23.7.1926-3.6.2024
Family, friends and members of Baan Baa, Boggabri and Narrabri communities were deeply saddened to hear of the death of Richard (Dick) Ivo Eather on June 3, 2024.
Steve Eather delivered a heartfelt eulogy on behalf of the family.
He began with, Dad, Dick, Richard Ivo Eather:
Only Lucy and I call him Dad, Dick as most of you and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren called him, was born in Singleton on July 23, 1926, to Ivor and Grace Eather.
They soon moved to ‘Harparary’ where Ivo had purchased 80 acres in the delta area, between Maules Creek and the Namoi River, to add to ‘Bollol’ which he already owned and worked with his brothers in partnership.
It was a soldier settlers’ entitlement and after clearing developed into excellent lucerne country with loamy soil and shallow water.
Ivo, Grace and Dad settled in to the ‘Acacias’ and made it their home.
A brother Don came in 1929, sister Kitty 1931, brother Peter 1933, and brother Harry in 1935.
His remaining brother, Harry and family have travelled from Rockhampton to be with us here today.
The children schooled at Glenpatrick Public School a few miles north of home.
Riding horses or push bikes, I think Dad would mostly be bike because he and horses didn’t really get along too well.
Then to Gunnedah Intermediate School until third year.
He rode his bike to Baan Baa Station Monday mornings by 6am to catch the train to Gunnedah to board with the Hughes family, for the week of school, then back to Baan Baa by train and bike home Friday afternoon.
Then it was Armidale High School for the last two years.
One train trip home from Armidale which was via Werris Creek and back up north to Baan Baa, the train was standing room only, until a lot of people got out at Boggabri.
Dad and Don sat down and promptly went to sleep, only to wake up, with the train pulling out of Baan Baa Station, so they had to get out at Turrawan station.
Then wait for a return train to Baan Baa where their bikes were because their dad didn’t have enough petrol coupons to come and get them.
Ivo told Dad that because four boys was too many for the farm, he had to get a profession.
So, he enrolled at Armidale Teacher’s College.
While in Armidale, Dad played both rugby league and rugby union as a second rower.
Coming out of teacher’s college, his first and only school was ‘Brigalows’, a one teacher school west of Barraba, on the property ‘Brigalows’.
He also taught the kids to swim in a nearby creek as well as their ABCs.
Mum was at that stage, boarding with eldest sister Alma, and working in Barraba at the telephone exchange and another of mum’s sisters, Middy, arranged for them to meet at a dance.
Romance was in the air and the rest is history.
Dad decided that farming suited him better than teaching after two years, so he returned to Baan Baa.
Mum and Dad were married in Barraba on October 1, 1949, two days after Mum’s 20th birthday.
They honeymooned at Port Macquarie, in a borrowed caravan pulled with the ‘Willys Jeep’ that he purchased in Sydney earlier.
Dad and Don had taken the train down to Sydney to buy a Jeep each and scrounged enough fuel rations and metholated spirits, to get the jeeps home.
Dad added a bedroom and kitchen on to the existing shearing quarters at ‘Bollol’ and that became their home, with a few more renos, over the next 62 years.
I was born in 1951 and Mum and Dad chose Lucy to join our family in 1957, see Lucy’s letter.
Dad and his brothers farmed as ‘Eather Bros’ and they purchased a property ‘Faihaven’ at Kokotungo northwest of Banana in Queensland.
Don and Dot and baby Bob as well as Peter moved there in the early fifties leaving Harry, Dad and Mum growing wheat and fat lambs at ‘Bollol’ and making hay at ‘Harparary’.
The partnership dissolved when cousin Bob and I came home from school to join our fathers on the land.
Peter and Olive and Harry and Jill had properties near Baralaba and Kokotungo.
Dad was involved in many activities off farm.
Friendship with the vicar of Boggabri, Rev Harry Taylor led to joining Lodge Nandewar in Boggabri where he was master in 1967/68 and again in 1991/92, then District Grand Inspector of Workings in the mid-seventies.
Dad and Mum went to church in St Clements, Baan Baa and Dad was elected church warden there and on Boggabri Parish Council in St Barnabas Parish.
He served as vicar’s warden to a lot of vicars as well as being a Synod representative and did quite a bit of lay preaching in the Parish over the years.
Dad and Mum had many years travelling to Armidale for Anglican Synod and made many friends there, and around the diocese.
Tennis was popular around Baan Baa with most properties having a tennis court, so Saturday afternoons were at someone’s place with bottle and plate in tow, be it the Hudson’s, Richard’s, Latham’s, Whan’s, Maunder’s, Brown’s, Chick’s and our home at ‘Bollol’, to name a few.
Dad smoked a pipe for a long time (which meant that he couldn’t sneak up on Lucy or me, as he was either coughing or tapping his pipe out on his boot).
He decided he wanted to learn to fly so gave up smoking so he could afford to learn. He trained at Namoi Aero Club under well-known WWII pilot Peter Brown.
He and Mum had quite a few trips around Australia in one of Namoi Aero Club’s planes or with his cousin Arch and his wife Jean in their Cessna.
He also kept his flying hours up by delivering planes from Namoi Aero Club to Tamworth for service and return when that was complete.
Dad was a founding member of the Prime Wheat Association which was formed to get a premium for the high protein wheat grown in the fertile North-West NSW soils.
He was also on the Pastures Protection Board in Narrabri (now known as LLS) for many years.
He was a member of the Rural Fire Service or Bush Fire brigades and he took over as Captain of Baan Baa Brigade from friend and colleague, Bill Richards, then with Ron Baker from Namoi Shire Council, became one of the original Group Leaders doing training at Narrabeen Lakes, I think. He received the National medal with a few bars for work with the Rural Fire Service.
He was one of the early members of Boggabri SES doing flood and emergency work.
Both Dad and Mum worked on SES driver reviver cuppa program.
When he and mum retired, he turned his attention to gathering the history of the Baan Baa district.
He put himself through TAFE in Narrabri to learn to use the computer.
Later he joined Boggabri Historical Society, doing more research in there, which is where most of the information he gathered is held.
He had several hobbies in his time, lapidary, stone polishing, making jewellery etc., and wood turning after he retired.
We all still have toilet roll holders and nut crackers, which we all received as gifts.
Dad and Mum found golf and spent much of their weekends at the Boggy Club.
Filling most positions in the club at some time or other and travelling all over the place playing in competitions.
They left many friends there, and at St Barnabas when they moved to Tamworth.
Dad joined Probus in Narrabri in later years and he transferred to Tamworth when they moved there, meeting more friends, and going on many happy bus trips.
Because Dad practised his golf at home, I would find golf balls all over ‘Bollol’ as the crows pinched them and carried them off to leave them in funny places, like on top of fence posts.
In 1998 he was awarded Boggabri Citizen of the Year, for service to the Boggabri community.
Dad, Mum and I worked the farm for 27 years and they lived on at their home on ‘Bollol’ for another 13 years, tallying up 62 years at ‘Bollol’, before moving to Tamworth
In 2011, they moved to Tamworth to Karwin Street, where they had plenty of visitors from Mum’s sisters, brother, nieces, nephews and friends in the 10 or so years there.
Dad had a fair resistance to pain or didn’t tell us anyway, over his later years had both hips and one knee replaced.
When he was about 89, his other knee kept letting him down.
The doctor told him that he would lose brain cells if he had the operation, his reply was “I’ve got plenty of spare ones”.
Dad was also an avid reader through his life.
For a long time, the Namoi Regional Library had a branch in the Baan Baa Hall which was run by Mardi Brown for some time, then Ett Macleod.
Dad was a very regular client reading at least two to three books a week.
That continued in Tamworth, with the library supplying Dad with ‘Talking Book’ sticks when his eyesight started to fail.
When they moved to Tamworth, Dad and Mum worshiped in St Johns Anglican Church until, in the middle of COVID, Mum decided to go into care at the RFBI Cottage Homes.
Dad wasn’t ready for care at that stage and spent about a year on his own, visiting family and friends until at 95 with vision failing had his driving licence reduced to around Tamworth, so he decided to hand it in and gave his car to Maddie, one of his great-granddaughters.
He then decided to follow Mum into the RFBI Homes so he could be nearer Mum.
They celebrated 74 years of marriage last year.
Berice commented that, as she lost her father not long after we were married, that Dad became not only a father-in-law, but a father to her as well, willing to assist her with flat tyres, batteries etc at the drop of a hat, if I was busy somewhere else, he was also a wonderful grandfather to our boys.
The families would like to say a big thank you to my sister Lucy and daughter Amie for all they did for Dad and continue for Mum.
Also, a special thank you to the staff at RFBI Cottage home for their loving care of Dad until he passed away.
Dick’s grandsons all shared emotional messages and memories of the grandfather at the end of the eulogy.
Each one echoing Steve’s message that they will always miss him.
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