Kenneth William John Hughes, February 10, 1926 - December 25, 2015
Kenneth William Hughes, the eldest son of William and Violet Hughes, was born in Boonah on February 10, 1926. Ken is predeceased by elder sister Hazel and younger sister Maureen and survived by two brothers, Graham and Snow.
The family lost their father William when Ken was six years old and life for Violet, Ken and his brothers and sisters was not easy.
The Hughes family had moved from Wallumbilla to Yuleba prior to his father’s death and Ken attended school at Yuleba until Year 8.
Horseback was the normal way Ken and his siblings got to school and it’s little wonder that he always felt at home on the back of a horse.
The family had a tough existence but the values that Violet instilled in her children were evident in the way Ken lived his life.
Ken was a man who worked extremely hard and was never one to ask others to do what he could do for himself. He always showed respect towards those whose paths he crossed and was respected by all who knew him.
He seldom spoke of these hard times the family would have gone through, accepting what life dealt him and got on with what needed to be done.
Ken lived with his family and worked in the Yuleba district as a young man, doing any jobs that came his way. At 19 he joined the Australian Army and served from 1945 to 1947. He was in the Army of Occupation of Japan for most of this time.
In 1951 Ken and the Fogarty family drove a mob of horses from Caldervale station at Tambo to the Kimberley region in WA.
In 1951 he and the Fogarty family drove a mob of horses from Caldervale station at Tambo up through north west Queensland and across the Northern Territory to the Kimberley region. This was a long way on the back of a horse.
When Ken returned, he worked on Tom Jillett’s Greendale station near Tambo where he met his future wife Charlotte, who was working there as a governess.
They were married in Mitchell in 1953. Their first child, Dianne, was born in Charleville, and christened in Tambo at Christmas 1953. At this time, Ken was working on Yandarlo outstation, just south of Tambo.
In 1954, the family moved to the Northern Territory to Willeroo station in the Katherine district where their second child David was born in January 1957.
During this period the family also worked and lived on Kirkimbie and Sturt Ck stations near the Western Australian border.
Ken, Charlotte, Dianne and David moved back south in 1961 to Stockade station near Tambo where the family resided for the next 20 years. Their youngest child Steven was born at the Charleville hospital in May 1962.
The owners of Stockade would not have been able to believe their luck to get a station manager as skilled and experienced as Ken but this was always evident in the high regard they had for him and the decisions they relied on Ken to make with the running of Stockade.
Ken was an accomplished stockman and looked after and ran the property like his own.
Ken had a keen interest in the horse racing industry, having owned and trained several horses that won races in central western Queensland and Emerald. He was timekeeper for the Tambo Jockey Club for many years. He also bought and sold a few pubs including The Palace in Longreach, The Rix in Charters Towers and another in Allora near Toowoomba.
Stockade was sold In the early 1980s so Ken returned to the Kimberleys to work on Go Go station near Fitzroy Crossing.
In the late 1980s he purchased his first property at Jambin, which he kept for a couple of years until he sold it and bought his beloved Yarra Yarra at Goovigen. One of his other keen interests was investing and keeping track of the share market.
His greatest love was his six grandchildren, of whom he was very proud and he was sure they were going to be successful in whatever career choice they made.
He enjoyed visits from them and encouraged them to have a bit of fun, giving them 20 cents for every lousy jack they could shoot, stirring up the meat ant nest and teaching them to drive in the trusty old Toyota.
He told Steven a few years ago that he didn’t mind earning money but didn’t like to spend it. However, he would make exceptions for his grandchildren.
He would ring Matthew on a Sunday evening, only on the home phone though. It would be quick hello, how are you, cattle are good - enough to fill three minutes.
At night only one light was allowed on in the house so if you moved from one room to another you had to be sure and turn them off. The electric ceiling fans in the house were never used.
When Ken visited Steven at Springsure in about 1989 they went out to Mantuan Downs to do a bit of surveying on a road. Ken spotted a nice straight box tree sapling to use as a shovel handle. It is still in use at Yarra Yarra.
About 5 years ago one of his grandchildren, Ben was helping to do a bit of fencing, with crow bar and shovel – no modern gear. Ben was a fairly fit 21-year-old but struggled to lift the fence posts his 85-year-old Grandad handled with ease.
Ken didn’t enjoy living indoors, choosing to sleep out on the veranda on his shearers stretcher in all weather conditions rather than using one of the bedrooms.
Ken was as tough as the land he lived on, and could be stubborn at times.
He loved running his property and raising his Santa Gertrudis cattle and until about four months ago was still riding his horse. He was very independent and was reluctant to seek help from family and neighbours.
As his health started to fail over the last 12 months or so he was worried about having to leave Yarra Yarra and move into an old persons home in town.
It is comforting to know that he passed away at home as he wanted.
