Monica Schar
Monica
Schar's Article on the ketch Falie
Uncle
Tom Garnaut draws HMAS Bergaumi he skippered WW II
Tony
and Ida Schar and family tribute to Laurie Garnaut
Tony
Schar's Article on the ketch Edith Alice
Helen
Garnaut skippers Heron class Edith Alice 5138 in Cairns
Monica Schar – Sunday 11th Feb 2007
To: My nieces and nephews and their families.
From: Monica Schar (nee Garnaut) - just a few memories of your father’s early years.
Richard Lawrence Garnaut or Laurie as he is known to everyone is my immediate big brother and about four years older. Our other brothers were Jack, Tom and Bob. Our sister Mona and brother Louis had died at an early age.
We had a wonderful childhood and youth in and around Port Adelaide and Semaphore. It occurred in the days before computers and TV, and when telephones, radio, motor cars and many household appliances were rare and considered luxuries.
Picture of Jesus looking after seafarers was on Laurie's favourite calendar at Farnora
Our father Thomas Garnaut was a sea captain on ketches, a two mast sailing cargo ship which will equate these days to a large road train. Ketches would leave Port Adelaide with supplies for towns along the west coast of South Australian at a time when there were few roads and railway tracks in the area and return with bales of wool, bags of grain and other goods for loading onto large ships for export around the world.
Our father loved the sea and he instilled a love of the sea in his sons. When the ketch was in port we would often play on the boat while dad would repairs sails or do other maintenance. My time at sea was limited as I would get sea sick, a situation that embarressed our father, a sea captain.
When Laurie was about 2 years old the family moved from Semaphore to 73 Fletcher Road Birkenhead, a house that our parents had built. It is still there today but not the back yard tennis court. Tennis courts including public ones were rare in those days so we must have been considered privilege but we thought of ourselves as just average children.
73 Fletcher Road, Sandwell (now Birkenhead)
Tennis became a big part of our lives and the neighbourhood children would visit to play or just watch. Laurie and my other brothers taught me to play tennis from a young age. Probably not intentionally but whenever they did not have a partner I was allowed to be at the other end of the court. Being brothers they showed little mercy for their little sister and would hit the ball as if they were playing for sheep stations. However, playing against older brothers had benefits in that it made me a strong player and I was the school’s tennis captain from Grade 6. Our mother would host regular ladies’ tennis days so there were always people about at home.
Laurie's grandson Cameron from Brisbane on a recent visit to Adelaide to see Auntie Mon
Laurie was a good swimmer and saved my life when I was six. I had asked dad to teach me how to swim. He tied a tea towel around my waist to which he attached a p iece of rope and threw me overboard. He then walked along the side of the ketch as I splashed in the water. Suddenly the tea towel became untied and I began sinking and fighting for survival. Laurie dived in and rescued me. Dad and Laurie thought it was a bit of a joke but my mother and I didn’t agree. I did manage to learn how to swim.
Laurie would frequently go sailing on the Port River on a small boat owned by a family friend. Laurie would be the mate and do most of the work while the boat owner would control the rudder and give orders. Laurie took me sailing a number of times but he never made me into a sailor.
By the time Laurie finished Grade 7, he would have been about 12 or 13 years old, the Depression had started. The expansion of the road and railway network into country areas together with the Depression greatly reduced the trade for ketches. Things got hard for everyone. Laurie left school and got an apprenticeship with a local butcher shop. His brother Bob had done the same about a year early. Brothers Jack and Tom had also left school after grade 7 and worked on ketches. I can remember Laurie proudly working in the butcher shop and delivering meat on his bicycle. Laurie was always confident and outgoing and would love serving customers and joking with them.
Before TV, radio was a big entertainer. We were one of the few families in the area who had a radio and it took pride of place in the dining room. On a summer night we would often open up the windows, turn the volume up and neighbours would sit outside the house and listen to the latest radio serials and music shows. They were wonderful social gatherings.
Music was important to our mother and she encouraged as all to play at least one musical instrument. In between putting up with your brothers trying to play a new piece of music we would have some wonderful family music sessions.
Tom organised his brothers and friends into a ten piece orchestra. They would gather in the lounge room for practice. Their music would drift through the neighbourhood and before long there would be people gathering in the street taking in the atmosphere and clapping at the end of pieces. The band played at the local picture theatre. They would play a few songs before, during interval and after the movie. The band got paid seven shilling and sixpence as well as seeing the latest movies. It was a good arrangement. The band also played at the local dance halls. Laurie had an eye for the girls and would prefer to dance rather than being up on stage playing. He was a good dancer as well as being tall with good looks and the girls would compete for his attention.
A naval officer, Commander Turner lived nearby. It was him who encouraged Laurie to join the Navy in June 1938 for a twelve year stint. Up to this time, life in the Australian Navy was adventurous with little risk but this was to change a year later. Our parents were very proud of his decision even though it meant him moving away from home. Lawrie was born for the Navy. He really enjoyed the lifestyle. He would write telling us when he would be coming home for leave and we would take the train into the Adelaide Railway Station and wait the arrival of the Melbourne Express. I would see him walking along the platform splendid in his naval uniform and rush to meet him. I would be crying as I had missed him and would give me a big hug. The same thing would happen when he was leaving. I missed him heaps.
For the short time he was at home it would be like one long party. Laurie had a happy and confident personality, could easily talk to people and was quiet sociable. There would be lots of visitors, tennis games and we would go off dancing or do something else most nights. Laurie looked very handsome in his naval uniform which was helped along by being tall and slim. Girls would clamour for his attention. This female admiration became even greater about a year later when he became a petty officer and the sailor’s hat was replaced with a naval peak cap. Laurie loved the attention.
The Second World War had a significant impact upon our family. All four brothers did naval service and only managed one or two home visits each. Dad had become an invalid and the ketch business had to be wound up. He died in 1943 at age 58 years. A few months later our mother had a major heart attack which left her an invalid. She died 14 years later in 1958. By the end of the war we were all either married or engaged and going our own separate ways in different parts of Australia. Family contact was mainly by letters, Christmas and birthday cards, and the occasional phone calls but we were always in each others hearts.
My brother Laurie, the uncle of my children, we wish you eternal rest and may you have a beautiful reunion with your wife Agnes, our parents, your brothers and sister, relatives and friends that left this world before you.
Rest in peace. Monica Schar
Cameron with Auntie Mon, Peter Schar & wife Raelene in Adelaide
Monica Schar's Article on ketch Falie for South Australia Jubilee 1986
Uncle Tom Garnaut's drawing HMAS Bergaumi he skippered in WW II
Tony Schar writes: “A drawing done by Uncle Tom of his ship the HMAS Bermagui which he was the skipper of during WW2. It appears in the HMAS ans AS YOU WERE series of books produced after the war.”
To all the Garnaut family
Your Dad was a great mate and Uncle to Ida and Tony and family.
We have had contact with your father for forty years, with him providing us with lots of advice prior to getting married and many times after getting married. Whether it worked or not is another question!!!!!!!!!! We have five children and now six grandchildren.
On the times Laurie came to Adelaide and lived for a short time, we had many lunches, coffees and meals and he reminisced on his life and where the world was heading. When he returned to Cairns he often phoned and chatted about life and the family. The contact we had was great and will be fondly remembered.
One short anecdote. Laurie was in Adelaide late 1969 or early 1970 and he wanted to see the sights south of Adelaide. Ida and I had a Volkswagon Beatle and at the time Ida was pregnant with our first (Jennifer). So we headed down to Aldinga via a dirt road that had received plenty of rain so was very boggy. Laurie started to panic as he envisaged himself having to push the car out of the mud - being resplendidly dressed.
The car journeyed the four kilometres sideways but we got through. However, his head did connect with the roof of the Volksy on numerous occassions. A story he always reminded me of whenever we chatted.
We will remember Laurie in our Masses and Prayers and hope the Good Lord keeps him in the palm of His hand.
Best wishes to all,
Tony and Ida Schar and family.
Skipper Helen Garnaut sailing Heron class Edith Alice 5138 in Cairns
