By: Jane Harding27th Jul 2021 1:43PMMiss Gilroy is Daphne (Easter) Partridge, nee Gilroy, the late mother of Des Partridge, at around 19 outside the Royal Mail Hotel at Tewantin.

Des presumes his Mum, who died in 2001 at 80 years, was visiting her parents, Robert and Isabella Gilroy, when the photo was taken. After her high school education at Gympie she worked in the office of Doyle’s sawmill at Kenilworth owned by her brother-in-law Will Doyle, married to one of her sisters, May. Mum married my father, Charles Edward Partridge, then of Eumundi, in March, 1940.

There were 11 Gilroy children, many of them prominent in show rings as equestrian competitors and events such as camp-drafting. All 11 are now deceased. Robert had a farm between Imbil and Brooloo before retiring to Tewantin, and in his retirement he made bullock team yokes under his house, and hand made whips for the Cobb and Co centenary. He was born in July, 1880, and died February, 1965, and is buried in Gympie.

One of Mum’s sisters, Jean, was married twice and her second husband, Ted Gerchow, was heavily involved in constructing and maintaining the walking tracks in the Noosa National Park.

As 10 or 11 year old I had several holidays at their permanent tent home right within the park when visiting my grandparents. I remember ice creams at Godbers’ cafe, movies at the Mayfair picture theatre, buying stuff at Bickles, travelling on Mr Donovan’s bus service to Cooroy to catch the train home to Landsborough, swimming in the river baths, and watching speedboat races from the park outside the hotel.

A lot of happy memories about Tewantin-Noosa in my youth. I started school at Tewantin in 1945, and soon after we shifted to Caboolture for three years before settling in Landsborough. (submitted by Des Partridge)