Kenneth (Ken) Alexander Lawson OAM
By William (Bill) Lawson
Ken (my father) was born in Mareeba in May 1919 with ‘sawdust in his blood’ as his father Alexander K Lawson (Alec) and Grandfather James Kemp Lawson (JK) were both sawmillers.
Early sawmill pioneers
JK had sailed from Scotland into Rockhampton 1887 with his wife Mary when Alec was just five years old. The family soon moved to Mareeba to chase gold that was being found but had no success. Mary worked in a shop in Port Douglas where she would contact TB and died in 1903. JK returned to Scotland. Alec (now aged 21) remained in Port Douglas where he had work building houses for the Mossman Sugar Mill but he could see that there was an opportunity to supply timber for the gold mining industry so asked JK, then in the USA, to return to build a sawmill in Mareeba. Which he did, and they completed construction in 1909.
My father’s grandfather on my mother’s side was William Alexander Hastie, born in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England and a master builder who had settled in Brisbane in 1884. Then moving to Ipswich, then back to Brisbane, working as a builder. Here, he accepted the role as foreman to build railway lines in North Queensland.
In 1893 after spending 12 months in Myola William moved to Mareeba. From here he would supervise the building of railway lines to Atherton, Chillagoe and Forsyth. Later he would supervise train lines in the south of the state; from Oakey to Cooya and Beaudesert to Beenleigh, all while his family remained in Mareeba.
His son William helped build Mossman Sugar Mill and Mareeba’s first church. His daughter Edith Hastie would marry Alec Lawson in October 1911. Alec had their home built opposite the Mareeba sawmill one block away. The home remains today substantially as it was built. The Mareeba sawmill site remains vacant after its demolition.
Edith and Alec had five children; Wilfred, Oliver, Norma, Ken and Floris (all born in Mareeba).
Ken (born 1919) was educated at Thornbourgh College in Charters Towers. He later qualified as a 1st class engine driver and saw doctor. From 1935 to 1937 he drove lorries hauling logs into the Mareeba sawmill.
Following the purchase by Lawson & Sons Pty Ltd of the Tully sawmill in 1937 from Peter Flegler (the mill had been closed following the 1930 depression as there was no demand for timber) Ken resided in an onsite cottage which still stands today, although not occupied. See photo. In 1939 he was joined by his brother Oliver, and they resided in rooms above Taylor’s cafe.
The eldest brother Wilfred became manager of another sawmill in Tolga a short distance from Mareeba towards Atherton. Norma became the bookkeeper at the Mareeba mill run by James K Lawson and Alec Lawson. Ken married Esther Joycelyn Blakey (Joyce) in 1943 (her father served as a postmaster in Tully before moving to Innisfail) and Ken built a new home in Cook Street, Tully in 1944 . Photo attached as it is in 2024.
Ken and Joyce had four children (William [Bill] Glenice, Colin and Kerry) who all attended Tully State Rural School (TSRS) before going to boarding school in Brisbane and Charters Towers. The eldest son Bill was also said to have “sawdust in his blood” working for 12 years for Woodland Limited particle board manufacturers in Brisbane and Gympie until the company was taken over by CSR in 1982.
Mill innovation, renovation and employment
The Lawson’s Tully sawmill had the first borer immunisation plant in Australia commencing in 1944. Ken Lawson had approached the chemist (Allan Doolan) at the Tully Sugar Mill to see if he could devise a solution that would prevent borers in sawn timber. He succeeded in that and the solution was named Borax. See photo of press article.
I recall during the 1950s on Saturday mornings, accompanying my dad to the mill to unload the immunising tank, mixing a new charge for treating another stack of timber inserted into the tank.
During World War ll Lawson sawmills supplied maple timber that was turned into propellors for the British Airforce The timber was nicknamed ‘Airscrew maple’. After the war, Lawson’s mills supplied flooring timber to repair Parliament House in London damaged by bombing. Furthermore, the black bean timber that was used to replace the House Of Commons Speaker’s chair, was suppled from Lawson mills. Dunlop’s in Brisbane made the replica chair using the one in Parliament House in Canberra as the model. The replacement chair was Australia’s gift to the UK to restore their Parliament house.
Throughout the early years of the Tully sawmill, Ken readily employed new arrivals into Tully. Mid 1950 a plymill operation was added to the complex. This provided employment for women who racked the veneer peelings for drying and then packing for transport to Mareeba to be made into marine plywood or partition quality panels featuring Queensland maple, walnut or silver ash to name some. Mr Simpson, relocated from Mareeba to supervise the operations of the veneer mill and the drying of peeling. At some later stage his wife managed the top pub in Tully.
Community service in Tully
From 1951 to 1969 Ken Lawson was on the P&C for TSRS along with school headmaster Mr Pearson, Ron Flegler chairman, and fellow committee members Len Emery (pharmacist), Harry Rodger’s, and Bobby Boys (Shire Engineer). With timber guaranteed by Ken Lawson the committee the committed successfully lobbied the Education Department to add onto the primary school site a High Top (class rooms for years 9 and 10 to Junior education level). See photo of article.
Ken involved himself in many community affairs. He sat on the hospital board for 31 years, the fire brigade for 17 years, including as chairman handing over to George Castrisos. He was a long-term server for Tully Rotary receiving the Paul Harris Fellowship for services to Rotary. He was a Shire Councillor for nine years.
Ken also had a part in getting Tully Bowls Club established. He assisted Bill Dean fundraise to build a new Methodist Church where it stands today as the Uniting Church and played a large part in getting the Rockingham Retirement Village in Cardwell.
For his community services Ken received an Order of Australia medal in April 2003 from the Governor of Queensland at a function in Brisbane. Photo.
A move to Cardwell
The Lawson family sold all their sawmills to Foxwood Ltd in 1968. While Ken moved to Cardwell to live, he would continue to manage the Tully sawmill for Foxwood until it was closed in 1973 when the machinery was moved to Hughenden to mill Cypress Pine. Ken supervised the establishment of that mill for twelve months.
From 1974 to 1978 Ken managed Northern Builders Supplies in Still Street, Tully, down the street from the corner on which the Westpac Bank stands today. In 1978 he bought the bus run from Cardwell to Tully High School. He operated that until 1981 when he purchased a mobile crane with wide tyres able to operate in the sand around Cardwell for building construction and to load supplies to Hinchinbrook Island. Photo. He sold that in 1992 and retired.
Photo of Cardwell residence built in 1966 as it stands today with high shed to garage the mobile crane. House and sheds built to withstand cyclones successfully.
For several years Ken’s eldest daughter, my sister, Glenice and her husband Derek Allman managed the Cardwell Newsagency before relocating to Brisbane. My other sister, Kerry became a schoolteacher but on moving to Brisbane after marrying ran a bridal flower business from her home.
My brother Colin served the North Queensland power industry based in Cairns. I qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1970 after graduating with Honors in Commerce and remained in Brisbane throughout my working life, running my own accountancy and taxation practice from 1990 to 2016.
Our mother and father, Joyce and Ken moved into Aspley Gardens Retirement village early in 2005. Ken passed away in May 2007 having suffered Parkinson's disease in later years. Joyce passed away there in October 2011.