Kids, family and community

BOB Beazley believed in KFC long before he heard of Colonel Sanders.
For Mr Beazley, a greathearted man who died recently aged 86, kids, family and community were the three highest priorities in life.
Robert Earnest Beazley was born on 23 October 1918, the second child of Florence and Samuel Beazley who lived on Beazleys Road, Cardinia.
He grew up in Cardinia and Tooradin and was active in the local community.
Bob went to school at Cardinia Primary School and for short periods to the Tooradin North and also the Dalmore primary schools. He and his sisters regularly attended Sunday school at Cardinia.
Bob learnt to drive a car at the age of 12 and at the age of 14 he used to drive his sisters Mary and Glenda to the Girl Guides at Clyde.
At the age of 15 he was driving a truck around the district for the Cranbourne Shire.
As a young man, Bob loved to go rabbiting and he especially loved to go fishing on the Westernport Bay.
There were also plenty of eels in the dams and creeks around Cardinia to be caught. Bob also played tennis and cricket.
Bob’s father’s farm was a mixed farm. They grew a lot of potatoes and other vegetables and they also milked seven to eight cows.
It was on his father’s farm that Bob learnt to be a farmer and developed his love of growing things and an appreciation for Mother Nature.
His love of Mother Nature can be seen to this day in his beloved garden at Tooradin where he spent many hours looking after his roses.
For Bob’s father, 1926 was a successful year and they bought a Chevy and a Fordson tractor.
In the early ’30s Bob’s father bought the first wireless in the district from Mr Futcher’s shop in Pakenham.
It cost two shillings to recharge the batteries! And in 1956, Sam bought one of the first televisions in the district.
Sam’s farm at Cardinia was wet and, unfortunately for the family, in the 1934 flood they lost their entire potato crop.
After the 1934 flood, because there was so much damage to the roads and bridges in the shire, Bob and his father went to work for the Cranbourne Shire. It was during this period that Bob developed his love of trucks.
In 1942, Bob was called up for the Army but being the only son and a farmer, the doctor told him to go home and grow vegetables as his contribution to the war effort.
In 1945, Bob married a fairhaired beauty named Isabel Dixon. They had two daughters, Jewel and Helen. Sadly Isabel died shortly after Helen was born on 31 December, 1947. This was a difficult time for Bob.
In 1950, Sam and Bob sold their milking machines and for about four or five years tried their hand at sheep farming.
However, in 1956 Bob went back to potato farming with a large patch of spuds.
In 1957, Bob, a widower with two daughters, married Betty Friend (nee Scott), who was a widow with a son, Bill.
In 1959, Bob and Betty had a son, Lawrence. Bob now had four children, Jewel, Helen, Bill and Laurie. The family motto was ‘there are no steps in our family’.
Bob also started going to the old Victoria Market in Melbourne two to three times a week in 1959 to sell his vegetables.
He would load up his truck in the afternoon with sweet corn, pumpkins and cabbages and then drive down to Melbourne and sell them at the market.
In 1970, Bob sold all of his farming implements and went to work for Marshall Baillieu at Gowan Lea Farm in Dalmore.
In 1984, Bob sold up everything in Cardinia and built a house on the Tooradin foreshore which was close to where he first met Betty at her parents’ bakehouse.
All his life Bob followed the example set by his parents Sam and Flo and was very active in the local community.
He was involved in the Cardinia hall, the Cardinia cricket club, the Cardinia recreation reserve and the Rythdale Cardinia football club plus the Cardinia parents’ and teachers’ committee.
He was the gatekeeper at the football for more than 40 years. Both he and Betty were life members of the Rythdale Cardinia Football Club (ROC).
Bob was also a life member of the Cardinia hall committee. For more than 40 years he was on the door at the monthly dance. In fact, he only stopped being on the door two months ago.
Bob was also on the Recreation reserve committee for more than 40 years. He was also on the Back to Cardinia committee in 1984.
When Bob and Betty moved to Tooradin they continued their involvement with the community and became involved in the Cranbourne, Tooradin and Kooweerup historical societies. They were also in the senior citizens’ club and Bob was in the Tooradin fishing club.
After moving to Tooradin, Bob also started doing the gate for the Tooradin football club.
He did the gate at Tooradin for 15 years until at the age of 83 it got just too cold for him to spend all day standing in his little shed collecting admission.
Bob was a very community minded person and was always willing to get his hands dirty at working bees or any other activity that was required to help the community.
Bob and Betty’s contribution to the local community was recognised in 2001 when they both received a certificate of thanks from the State Government for their contribution to the local community.
Both Bob and Betty loved to collect things and all of their married life they were regularly off to garage and clearing sales and always returned with something.
The door at Bob’s house in Tooradin was always open to family and friends. Cakes, jelly slices and scones and cream were always on hand just in case someone dropped in.
The record for the number of cups of tea and coffee made in one day for visitors who were ‘just passing by’ was 92. At one point, Bob had 80 chairs in the house just so friends could sit down, rest their weary legs and have a cuppa and a chat.
Bob and Betty had six grandchildren, Kim, Tamara, Rohan, Nicole, Lexie and Kristen and two great grand daughters, Jade and Alanna and a very special grandson, Daniel.
Bob came from a different time and many would say possibly a better time.
He was proud of the fact that he worked up until he was 83. He always paid his bills on time and in full. He was always ready to give a helping hand to those in need.
He never did anything with the expectation of getting anything out of it himself, and if he could not say anything nice about somebody, then he did not say anything about them.
He was very proud of his children and especially proud of his grandchildren and great grandchildren.
His friends said the world would be a better place if there were more people like Robert Ernest Beazley.