12/02/2020
Obituary
Margaret Goodwin was Tony’s wife of 54 years and mother to their five children Anne, Jim, Robert, Sarah and Daniel.
Born in Sydney on the 12th March 1942 to Weston and Margaret “Peggy” Campbell during the height of the Second World War, she had one brother Bill who was born the following year. Weston served in the Air Force during the War. After peace was declared, the family moved in with Peggy’s family who were farmers at Palmwoods in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. In those early years life could not have been better. Margaret had wonderful childhood memories of playing around the dairy bales while the adults were milking the cows or in the pineapple patch whilst crops were harvested. It helped form her into a country girl for life. Her mother's family was from the Clan MacDonald, and their Scottish heritage was strongly ingrained to their family culture. The grandparents and her mother and aunts and uncles all spoke with a strong Scottish brogue. Even Margaret when she first met Tony had a Scottish flavour in her speech and words.
Her father, Weston, was a builder and when he had built a home for his family on a farm they bought at Bli Bli near Nambour, the young family moved in there.
Margaret developed a great love for horses. She saved up and bought her first horse, a part Arab mare named Arabian Gold, or “Goldie”. She loved riding and was a member of the Nambour Pony Club. Each year she would enter Goldie in events at the Nambour Show and was quite successful, winning many ribbons and prizes. She and brother Bill would ride through the bush around the farm whenever they could.
Her first job after high school was as a sales assistant on Saturday mornings in a small bakery in Nambour. She then obtained a permanent position as a ledger machine operator in the Nambour branch of the ANZ bank. She was working there when she and Tony met. On weekends she had part-time work in the TAB. After they married in 1965 Margaret and Tony moved to Brisbane where Margaret was able to obtain a transfer to the ANZ Bank’s Adelaide Street branch and Tony worked as a law clerk and continued studying at University at night. In 1968 Tony secured a job with a law firm in Gladstone and the young couple moved there. She was never happy being removed so far away from her family. Gladstone was not endowed with the natural beauty and climate left behind on the Sunshine Coast. Margaret continued working as a ledger machine operator until they decided to start their family.
They lived in town initially where the first four of their five children were born. Anne was born in 1971 followed by Jim, Robert, and Sarah. They eventually purchased 40 acres of land on the banks of the Calliope River at Beecher and built their current family home. It was after they moved in that Daniel was born in 1983.
Margaret was a full-time mum and devoted all her energy to bringing up the children in the best way she had learnt from her own mother. Like most parents she spent a large part of her life driving children to and from school, sports and other activities. She ensured the children were well fed with good home cooking, nicely dressed and helped with homework. She taught the girls to cook and sew. She never missed a birthday cake, which was always home-made, iced and decorated with candles.
Five children generated many and varied sporting commitments, so much time was taken up with driving them to swimming, sailing, tennis, soccer and pony club, to name just a few. She was a ready volunteer on the food and drinks kiosks at soccer and to take her turn washing team jerseys.
Margaret was not as much a lover of music as she was of other things. Even so she did grow quite fond of a select few artists particularly Neil Diamond, Abba, Bing Crosby and Roger Whittaker. She took a particular liking to a cassette tape of Roger Whittaker’s, which she would play over, and over, and over again in the little green Citroen in which she picked up the kids from school. Although a beautiful song, the kids would cringe at school pick-up time when “The Last Farewell” was playing yet again, with plenty of volume. One day, the embarrassment became too much for one of the kids, who took matters into his own hands and hid the cassette tape. The tape was forgotten about for the next 30 years until it was rediscovered in its original hiding place! By then, there were no more cassette tape players around!
Margaret’s love of horses influenced life at Beecher, and it wasn’t long before horses were acquired and became part of the family. Under Margaret’s tuition, all kids developed some level of riding ability, with a couple of them joining the local Pony Club. Very often, weekend sporting commitments included hauling a horse or two to local pony club events or more distant places in Central Queensland, South-East and South-Western Queensland, and even into New South Wales. All this required not just stamina but a four-wheel drive tow vehicle and a horse float. For Margaret, this was all a labour of love.
Some of the very first friends Margaret and Tony made when they moved to Gladstone were Vince and Dianne Chapman, a couple of their own age who had a cattle grazing property South West of Gladstone named Cedar Vale in the Boyne Valley. It wasn't long before the Goodwin family were regularly visiting Cedar Vale to stay for the weekend or just for lunch, something Margaret always looked forward to. Dianne would always greet us with a fresh-out-of-the-oven batch of scones, and heaven forbid if we ever turned up without chocolates! The property was very isolated at the end of a bush road with only a shared telephone party line for communication with the outside world. Electricity supply came from a diesel generator in the shed. One of Margaret’s fondest memories was of the thump thump thump of the generator until the last light was switched off at night and then absolute darkness and silence. The country girl wished she lived there full time. They have remained lifelong friends with the Chapmans. Sadly, and only recently, Dianne passed away and this had a profound effect on Margaret.
Margaret was a gifted artist, starting in her childhood with sketching in pencil and later adopting oils as her preferred medium. She was completely self-taught and produced many works depicting scenes of the Australian bush, featuring the gumtrees, fern forests, cattle and horses, all executed with extraordinary faithfulness, and reflecting her love of all things rural Australia. She was a regular competitor in the annual Martin Hanson Art Competition. She exhibited her works in the local art galleries and in the foyer of the Gladstone Entertainment Centre. Her paintings were always admired with locals and visitors keen to add one to their collections. Irish entertainer, Val Doonican has two of her works hanging on his walls back in the UK. Margaret was proud of this and the story of his purchases featured in the local newspaper. She was the Art Judge at the annual Mt Larcom Show for many years and was even an international art judge at local shows on Norfolk Island.
Once all five children were at school, Margaret re-entered the workforce, joining the staff at Chanel College in Gladstone where the older children were students. She was the assistant librarian there for many years, helping new batches of kids each year to navigate the school library. The students liked her because she was always friendly and willing to help. She was known as ‘the nice one’. If you were late returning a book, you would see Mrs Goodwin!
In the mid 80’s, Margaret and Tony took a holiday on Norfolk Island, instantly falling in love with the incredible beauty of the place and the warmth and friendliness of its people. Norfolk became the annual holiday destination for the entire family. The kids formed special bonds with the young locals, catching up with the same crew each year. One of the local lads in particular was a nice young fellow named Kevin, one of the islanders Margaret and Tony met on their first holiday there. Their daughter Sarah eventually married Kevin and resides with him and their children on the island.
In later years Margaret became interested in, if not obsessed with, her family's genealogy. She was inspired by her cousin Peter Bray and given a head-start from data he had collected. With a strong Clan Macdonald connection it was not long before she had assembled a very impressive profile of that Clan’s history. She discovered her Scottish Heritage connected her to royalty and nobility. She discovered family connections to an ancient castle now standing in ruins on a windswept Scottish coastline, once belonging to relations in the Sinclair family. She also discovered the Sinclairs were a very powerful and wealthy family – until some of them were caught in a heist of a ship – they were pirates! They were dispossessed of their lands and possessions and stripped of their Nobility. Margaret liked telling this scandalous discovery.
She discovered she is a direct descended of Robert De Bruce. She discovered she is 32nd cousin to Queen Elizabeth the Second. She is also related to George and Robert Stephenson, the famous Scottish steam locomotive and rail engineers. She discovered she is related to the first white woman to cross the Blue Mountains in the early days of Australian settlement. Margaret was always keen to share her ancestry discoveries in mind-boggling detail and genuine warmth.
Margaret hated having her photo taken. Thanks to her family and friends and their perseverance and sneakiness it was made possible to present a slideshow to all those present at her service to help reflect on Margaret’s life. And what more-fitting music to accompany the photos than Roger Whittaker’s “The Last Farewell”.
Margaret was a very quietly spoken person never known to blow her own trumpet. She will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a talented painter, and a beautiful friend to those who knew her best. She died on 17 January 2020 in Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital after a long and mysterious illness that could not be treated. She is survived by her husband Tony, her children Anne, Jim, Robert, Sarah and Daniel, and her Grandchildren in age order Tiana, Emma, Grace, Kyran, Mitchell and Edison. She will be ultimately laid to rest on her beloved Norfolk Island as this was her wish. She loved her family deeply and would do anything for them, and the family loved her. She will be deeply missed.
