back           Clarence (Clarrie) Spring : Eulogy delivered by celebrant Sandra Hill

Clarence Spring (more often known as Clarrie) was the youngest of 6 children born to Philip Walter Johnson Spring and Alice Sam on the 30th June, 1918, in Clermont. He was raised on his parents’ property at a place called Bathampton, and began his education at a small one teacher school to which he had to walk several miles in bare feet.

Both his parents were great gardeners and Clarrie developed a passion for growing fruit and vegetables.

His father turned his hand to many things including owning and operating a coal mine, a sawmill, a market garden, and a butcher shop. As a young boy Clarrie spent a lot of time with his father who was sadly taken from him at the tender age of only 9. But his father had provided well for his family and now it was time for his mother's resourcefulness to come to the fore. She saw to it that her youngest two sons, Hector & Clarrie went off to Rockhampton Grammar School to get more of an education than she or her husband had managed. Both did well at school but with times being so tough in the early 30's during the great depression neither felt justified in staying on more than the initial 2 years of high school.

Clarrie worked at various jobs throughout the remainder of the 30's, from coal mining, panning for gold, on to cutting and carting timber. He could undertake all the jobs in a sawmill as his father owned and worked one so all the children learned that industry well.

As the 30's drew to a close and Hitler invaded Poland he was an early volunteer to join the 2nd AIF.

After initial training in Australia, Clarrie was sent to England where he (and many others) awaited the Axis invasion that never came.

He was then sent off to North Africa where there was no shortage of contact with the enemy. He was among 40,000 or so Allied troops surrounded by the Africa Korps at Tobruk. Rommel urgently needed control of Tobruk so he could cut the length of his supply lines and thereby improve his chances of capturing the Suez Canal and the oil fields in the Middle East just beyond. It was as a term of derision that Rommel named the defenders Rats. Little was he to realise that the Rats would embrace their name and 70 years on still proudly call themselves the Rats of Tobruk. If Clarrie had been a cat with its reputed 9 lives, his stint in Tobruk would have made a significant dent in that number.

After some period of rest and recovery in what was then Palestine he was brought back to North Africa to join in the decisive Battle of El Alamein. After Africa, Clarrie did see some action in New Guinea but it soon became apparent that his injuries sustained in North Africa rendered him unfit for further active service. At this point the medical people decided he had seen and done enough and he was given a medical discharge.

The next major step in Clarrie's life after the war and upon leaving the army was marrying Claris Hiette. When he first came back to Australia from overseas he said to his mate’s sister, Claris, “I haven’t asked you to marry me yet, have I?” So she said “No, but I have been waiting for it”.

When he asked Claris's father for her hand in marriage, "Tommy" assured him he could think of no more suitable applicant. Clarrie & Claris were married on the 18th May, 1944. They were married for an amazing seventy years – a wonderful testament to their enduring love and commitment to each another.

The first of their 4 sons, Walter, came along the year after they were married. Robbie was born a couple of years later just before the family left Clermont and their families of origin to seek a new life in other parts of Queensland. Tragically, Robbie was drowned the following year. It was soon after this that Clarrie began teaching Walter (then aged 3) the basics of bushcraft. Ever after Walter could wander the bush and never got lost.

Bobby was born in 1949 and soon after the family moved to Gordonvale where Clarrie drove steam engines at the Mulgrave sugar mill. He began his studies to become a Steam Engineer. Walter was not about to be left out and took up a position on the other side of the table, also armed with pencil and paper. So there is a definite sense in which Walter's engineering studies began in 1949.

Clarrie's top priority was always his family. His memories of the privations inflicted on him by the war made him determined that he and his should never go hungry again - and so it proved. From Gordonvale the family moved for a time back to Clermont where Clarrie worked in both sawmills - the family one owned and operated by his brother Ernie and the government one dedicated to cutting sleepers for the railways.

Then a vacancy came up at Scottville for a winding driver at the coal mine. The family moved to Scottville and it was there that Clarrie had his longest job up to that time, 8 years. But times changed and he could see the role of underground coal mining diminishing. He applied for a job at Mt Isa, was accepted, and moved there. With some judgment and some luck (we can never really know how much of each) he managed to buy at auction a 5 acre property on the (usually dry) river. With a pick, shovel and wheel barrow he built a dam to capture as much water as he could when it did rain and went on to grow (with help from other family members - wife, children, dogs) a selection of vegetables and fruits.

Not so long after Clarrie began with Mt Isa Mines, management made him an offer to join them - an offer he could not refuse. All told he would spend 16 years with MIM. Sadly, in 1968 his son Bobby died in a car accident within days of the 20th anniversary of Robbie's drowning. All surviving members of the family were distraught but Clarrie (at least to the outside world) maintained a stoic stance, possibly conditioned by the war years when life expectancy for himself and others was very uncertain. John, the youngest, went from being a boy of 11 to a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Claris began paid work to distract herself from her loss. Clarrie initially was uncomfortable with this but came around when his mother-in-law explained it was no reflection on him and was the best thing for his wife.

As soon as he was entitled to do so (at age 60), Clarrie retired from the mine and he and Claris (now "empty-nesters") bought a property at Park Ridge just outside Brisbane and set up a farm where they grew some of the finest fruit and veggies imaginable.

He selectively cleared trees around the house to eliminate any danger of them falling on the house in high winds. Many of the neighbours expressed surprise that trees fell exactly where he wanted though they were sure the tree would fall some other way. And to be as least reliant on the town water as possible he built a dam - though this time he set aside the pick, shovel, and wheelbarrow, choosing instead to hire a professional earth mover to do the heavy lifting.

As well as the dam he had several bores sunk around the property, using his gift as a Water Diviner to pick appropriate spots for the bores. He teamed up with Rod the earth moving contractor who had built the dam to locate appropriate drilling spots for others who wanted bores sunk. While his fee may have been nominal he did enjoy using his gift to help others – a gift that few have, and even fewer understand.

For more than 25 years Clarrie & Claris lived at Park Ridge enjoying rural life while still being within easy reach of big city facilities. Eventually they decided the 10 acre farm was more than they could continue to manage and down sized to a regular suburban block.

The day before Clarrie was 92 the family suffered another loss. John the youngest of the 4 sons had been for some time in failing health and died at home in his bed. While 53 is an age at which most people are expected to go on living for quite a while, John’s health had been poor for some years and while the grief was still very real the element of surprise with his two previously departed brothers was absent.

Although his gardening opportunities were greatly reduced in suburbia, Clarrie managed to grow some pineapples which seemed to appreciate his green thumb and turned out as well as the best pineapples anywhere.

In the garden he is survived by a pair of fig trees. Although his outdoor activities were curtailed he continued with his long standing interest in politics and finance right up until his mini stroke just short of his 95th birthday.

His stroke might have killed him but apparently the inner cat still had a life or two left. His memory for new events took a big hit though he could still remember as well as ever events from as far back as the time of his childhood, like when he accompanied his father to visit Mrs Hiette’s store and met her two year old daughter Claris.

Another tale he would recount was from his acquaintance with Billy Singh, the legendary sniper of WW One, who may have accounted for as many as 3,000 Turks. When the Turks realised what a problem Billy was for them they brought up their own best sniper, Abdul the Terrible, to take care of him. Sadly for Abdul, Billy saw the sun glint on his binoculars and Abdul never fired another shot.

In this last year, Clarrie was hospitalised twice – first on account of fluid retention (technically, it may also have been called congestive heart failure) and later for a cut on his head resulting from a fall which the medical people said was the result of a heart attack. Although the medical people again patched him up and sent him home, the cat in him had just about run out of lives and a few days before Christmas Claris awoke to find herself a widow. Clarrie had always been fiercely independent and wanted to die at home. In this he succeeded, and even so, in bed as well and with no lingering illness so many others have to endure. He is survived by his wife Claris and his son Walter.