Part Four "OUTBACK"

 Ron Erle Grainer

Ron Erle Grainer the first child of Ron Albert and Margaret Grainer was born at Atherton on the 11th August 1922. Indications were it was likely to be a difficult birth and as Mt Mulligan did not have its own district hospital at the time it was probably thought better to be nearer the properly staffed and equipped Atherton Hospital should complications arise. 

All available information indicates Ron was most likely born at the Audley Private Hospital Atherton North Queensland. Audley was run by Dr Leslie Nye described in his obituary as "a pioneer in Australian medicine. As superintendent of Atherton District Hospital from 1918 to 1924 he introduced blood transfusions and x rays to Australia" [01] 

In his just published memoirs Dr Nye said "When I first went to the district most confinements were undertaken by untrained bush midwives who were very jealous of their reputations and managed to get their patients through without calling on 'young inexperienced doctors'. As a result there were many severe post natal problems and at every operating session there was at least one major repair" [02] 

"Much of obstetrics as was practised then was meddlesome. Doctors with busy programs tended to hurry births along with unnecessary trauma to mother and infant. I adopted the practice of leaving the birth as much as possible to nature" [03]

"In 1922 I bought a block of land next door and built a private hospital. This was a building built entirely of cedar which had previously been a hall in Atherton's [gold rush era] Chinatown"  [02] TEM p44  "I considered it wrong to mix obstetric cases with surgical and medical cases and,for that reason, the hospital was kept exclusively for mid-wifery" [04]

Ron's sister Marjorie was born at Mt Mulligan in 1924.

All available newspaper evidence indicates Ron spent the first eight years of his life with his birth family at Mt Mulligan.

“There were five stores and regular out-door films shows. No one in Mt Mulligan owned a motor vehicle. The only access to [and from] the town was by the twice- weekly Cairns [100 kilometers to the East] train. A predominantly masculine community with a high proportion of short-term residents, Mount Mulligan’s social life was naturally somewhat rough around the edges Spontaneous, embittered fist fights between miners were common and the consumption of alcohol was high but the town was by no means simply a community of drunken brawlers. The piano was a more important focal point for social activity than the keg and dance and social evenings were a nightly occurrence in homes and hotels". [05] 

Eleven weeks after Ron was born he was definitely present, if not settled, at Mt Mulligan as ‘Wild West” as it seems to have been at that time.

“Mr. and Mrs. Grainer’s young son, of a few months' old, was lying in bed about midday to-day, when Mrs. Grainer was startled by a sharp hit on the roof of the house. Investigations proved it to be à bullet about size .32 inch, which passed right through the roof, and was found beside the infant. The missile was quite hot when picked up. It is pleasing to say all the damage done is a hole in the roof, and the ladies getting a fright.” [06] 

Nine months after his birth Ron's mother took him to meet her mother Mrs Clark and the family relations at Atherton. [07]

Ron appears to have developed his musical talents, early, encouraged by his mother.

“Mrs Grainer started Ron on the road to a musical career. As a four year old he showed an interest in the piano and she taught him how to play simple melodies. “When he’s come home from school he’d play tunes he’s heard through the day and ones we played on the gramophone”’ she said. [08]

A 1960 Decca record company bio on Ron said "he was first introduced to the violin by an old Welsh miner in the little mining village in which he lived'.

The emotional experience of a childhood growing up in a mining town heavily dependent on train traffic may have inspired Ron to write some of his first noteworthy soundtrack scores for the documentaries “Terminus - 24 Hours in the Life of Waterloo Station” [1961] [Simply Media DVD 2005 Amazon com uk] and “Giants of Steam” [1963] Note the EP recording of the submitted score for "Giants Of Steam" is much better then the fragments of it used in the TV documentary.

“Terminus” has a memorable scene where a young blond haired child, not unlike Ron Erle in appearance at that age, is crying for his lost mother on a crowded train platform. While waiting for her to return he is kept occupied by the station master who gives him the keyboard [of a manual typewriter] to play on.

Shortly after Ron's death in 1981 Margaret Grainer was interviewed for Brisbane newspaper the Sunday Mail. The published article is a frustrating read. The heading is “Composer Lumped Coal”, with a paragraph subheading “Mum Recalls Early Fight” Definitely new information concerning Ron early life in Mt Mulligan yet these two incidents are not mentioned in any way in the accompanying text or elsewhere in that edition of the paper, indicating a last minute decision to drastically cut the article, an editorial choice that didn’t leave time to delete the banners.

As he grew up Ron's music abilities soon had a public outlet. Well known former Mt Mulligan resident Mary Wardle, featured in the 1971 ABC television documentary on the mine disaster “Too Young to Die” [currently watchable on Mike Pearce Films YouTube] told historian Mike Rimmer “There were only about 250 or so people but we had concerts and dances. "Young Ron lived at Mt Mulligan for about eight years. We could all tell that he was a genius, really gifted. I can recall him, when he was young lad, playing the piano. As he was only small, he could hardly reach the pedals, but oh, he was so talented.” [09]

Mary’s praise had some authority to it. “When Mary Wardle was a young woman she won a scholarship to study singing in the German city of Leipzig. Unfortunately her course was due to begin in 1915 but because of the first World War she couldn’t go” [10]

As part of the 2021 Mt Mulligan Mining Disaster 100th Anniversary Tribute a 242 page hard cover book was published containing personal and family memories from previous residents of the township where Ron grew up as a child. A remark by Dot Poletti on p98 is especially interesting. "There was even a picture theatre where my two uncles, John and Jim Harris, ran the first silent movies. My aunt Mary [Wardle] supplied the music on the piano changing the tunes to suit every scene".

As well as being one of Ron's most significant public champions it appears Mary Wardle may also have been Rons' accidental mentor for his future career composing theme tunes and incidental music for UK TV programs and motion pictures. As a youngster recognised by classically trained Mary as showing exceptional music sensitivity and ability at an early age it is not difficult to imagine Ron watching Mary's performances with a lot of interest not knowing what fate had in store for him thirty years ahead in a broadcast medium he could not have imagined at the time.

The Australian digital newspaper archive, Trove, indicates Cairns had its first talkie movie showing in October 1929 and Mount Mulligan didn't have a talkie theatre until 1937 so it is very unlikely even the Hoyts Talkie Travelling Road Show would have reached Mt Mulligan by the time the Grainer family left in early 1930.

 

1924 Some time during this year Ron's father appears to have left his post master job [perhaps helping to raise a young child as well as running the general store became too much of a workload]. A “R McGrath” started appearing as post master in the Mt Mulligan “Country” section of the 1925 Queensland Post Office Directory.

The Queensland Post Office Directory, while a valuable help in tracing the location of a certain personality, should be used with caution and only the “Country” listings taken notice of. In the "Alphabetical" QPOD Ron's father remained listed as post master for Mt Mulligan right up until the late 1930s when the family moved to Brisbane while the “Country” section accurately described his 1924 change of occupation when it occurred.

1929 A Mrs Quill is listed in the QPOD country section indicating that a rival general store had opened at Mt Mulligan. Maybe the financial pressure this caused as well as the after effects of the October 1929 stock market crash prompted the Grainers to move to the North Queensland coast especially as they would have realized the looming task of having their gifted child Ron Erle gain an education through high school and beyond.

1930 On 23 August twelve days after Ron's eighth birthday the annual children's plain and fancy dress ball was held at Mount Mulligan. Music was supplied by a six piece band which included Ron's mother Margaret .

"The evening opened with the Grand March by the children who performed the various evolutions in a praiseworthy manner". [11]

This is the last time Ron or Margaret Grainer were mentioned in the Cairns Post in connection with Mt Mulligan public activites so it is assumed the family left the area shortly afterwards. 

By the 1931 OPOD “J Grainer grocer” had been replaced by “Leo Gielles grocer” Gielles was described in the previous years QPOD as Mt Mulligan “accountant coal mine” and may have been a Grainer family relation as Frank Grainer [junior] married a Florence Gielles in 1913 at Thornborough [12]

In 1936 a Florence Gieilles replaced Leo Gielles in running a Mt Mulligan grocery. The Gielles and their competition Mrs Quill seemed to have remained active in the Mt Mulligan business community until 1941 when Florence Gielles disappears from the QPOD and another grocer David Fletcher appears. Mrs Quill remained listed as a Mt Mulligan grocery throughout the 1940s.

Header photo [detail] from Cairns Historical Society archives

References:
[01] Canberra Times.24 February 1976 p8
[02] G E Grundy "Two Enquiring Minds" Express Print 2014 p45 
[03] G E Grundy "Two Enquiring Minds" Express Print 2014 p45-46
[04] G E Grundy "Two Enquiring Minds" Express Print 2014 p44

[05] Peter Bell “If Anything Too Safe - The Mt Mulligan Coal Mine Disaster of 1921” 
James Cook University of North Queensland  2nd edition 1994 p23

[06] Cairns Post 8.11 1923 p3

[07] Mt Mulligan Notes Cairns Post  29 May 1923 p2

[08] “Composer Lumped Coal” Sunday Mail 1 March 1981 p11

[09] Mike Rimmer “Up The Palmerston” Glovers Printing Works Bundaberg 2004 p209

[10] Mike Rimmer “Up The Palmerston” Glovers Printing Works Bundaberg 2004 p211 

[11] CP 30.8.1930 p15

[12] Townsvile Bulletin 14.7.1913 p7