Arthur James Wells, husband of Patricia (dec), father of Dennis and Sherylyn, passed away on Saturday, September 21, 2024, aged 97 years.
Arthur was born in Narrabri on November 15, 1926, the fourth son of Thomas and Ada Wells.
He was one of six children, five boys and one girl.
Starting school at five years old in Narrabri, sadly shortly afterwards his mother died, and he and his five siblings went to live with his maternal grandmother, who raised them along with her own eight children.
Arthur continued his schooling at the Tarriaro School.
The Tarriaro School was a one teacher school, and by age 12 he was the oldest pupil as well as school captain.
Arthur would spend one hour of his day with his teacher teaching him, and then he would spend the rest of the day helping the teacher teach the rest of the younger children.
As he wasn’t learning a great deal this way, he left school at age 13 and went to work with his grandfather charcoal burning.
They would cut down dead trees, and using horses, would drag the trees and drop them into a pit.
The pits would be covered with sheets of tin and sand.
With two funnels up one end of the pit and leaving half a sheet of tin at the other end, the trees would then be lit.
When the fire reached the end of the pit, they would smother the flames with sand, leaving the charcoal to cool while they filled the next pit.
Once cooled, the charcoal would be bagged and loaded onto railway trucks.
This was the war years, and the only people you could sell charcoal to at the time was the government.
Petrol was very scarce as fuel was only being used for the war effort, and people had charcoal burners on the back of their trucks to run them instead of petrol.
At the age of 18, on January 22, 1945, Arthur enlisted in the Army and served in the 2/1 Australian Guard Regiment.
He served a total of 1011 days in the army with 569 days overseas as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan, following the cessation of hostilities after the surrender by the Japanese Emperor.
Arthur spent two years in Japan.
He was discharged from the Army just before his 21st birthday on October 29, 1947, at the rank of Lance Corporal.
In 1950, he married Patricia Joan Condon and the couple enjoyed a happy marriage for more than 56 years until Pat died in 2006.
During these years, they had welcomed their son Dennis in 1952, and daughter Sherylyn in 1954.
In later years the pair were blessed with seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
In 1954, Arthur and Pat built a new house at 7 Barwan Street.
It was only one year later in 1955 that the major floods occurred, and the family endured seven feet of water coming through the yard and the house.
When a repeat of this happened again in 1971 with four and a half feet of water invading the house, the couple made the decision to sell and build out of flood reach.
Arthur always liked to be active and was heavily involved in competitive bicycle racing both on the track and long distance. He was also a radio announcer for many of the local rugby league games.
Arthur and Pat were both keen tennis players – they played both competitive and social tennis.
Arthur only stopped playing tennis after a knee replacement at the age of 83.
The pair were part of a very close and supportive community with many friends, and the couple were much admired and respected in the local community.
Arthur always made time for the people he cared about and showed those around him that family always came first – no matter what.
Arthur worked for Telecom for 40 years until he retired as area supervisor.
During the 1971 flood he was being flown out to Burren Junction in a RAAF Iroquois helicopter to restore telephone services when the hydraulics failed, and the pilot ordered everything to be thrown out to lighten the load.
Luckily, they were able to return to the airport where the pilot was forced to make a ‘belly’ landing, landing the helicopter like an aeroplane.
Upon his retirement, Arthur and Pat started their travels, travelling all around Australia.
They also loved their trips overseas which included many visits to Fiji and New Zealand, and trips to the USA, Canada, England and France.
Arthur was a skilled gardener.
He spent many happy hours working in his garden.
The garden was so beautiful that people would knock on his front door and ask if they could use his backyard for their wedding.
Arthur loved ‘Gooley Gathering’ as he called it.
One of his favourite times was fossicking and then faceting of the gemstones and rocks that he collected.
He had a very impressive collection of gemstones from all around the world, most of which have since been donated to the local Historical Society.
On his retirement, Arthur was involved in several community projects – including the building of the Narrabri West lake wall.
He enjoyed his walks around the lake and watching the birdlife come and go with the seasons, and he could name all the different birdlife.
Lance Corporal Arthur Wells was a regular attendee at Anzac Day services and other RSL commemorative activities.
His commitment to the Narrabri RSL Sub-branch was recognised with the presentation of a service medallion in May 2024.
Arthur is predeceased by his wife Patricia and son-in-law Calvin.
He is survived by his son Dennis and wife Connie, daughter Sheryl, and his seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
A figurehead for the last of our veterans, Arthur will be greatly missed.
