One 'Hec' of a guy

Hec Zerner among his paw paw trees at
Palmwoods Sundale

EDGAR 'Hec’ Zerner can remember when his current home at Palmwoods Sundale was a citrus orchard, and when Palmwoods was covered with pineapples as far as the eye could see.

"I can remember when the town consisted of a blacksmith, the bank, publican, grocer, draper and a police station," he says.

"The first man I ever met in Palmwoods was the policeman, and other than that Palmwoods was just a sea of pineapples. Now there are very few pineapple farms left in the region, we don’t have a bank, and you’d be pretty lucky if you bumped into our policeman."

Hec, who was born in Ipswich in 1908, has spent almost 50 years in the Palmwoods district. He bought a pineapple farm at Ilkley in 1949 and produced fruit for the Golden Circle Cannery which had just opened at Northgate in Brisbane.

"Before I bought the farm, I was living in Brisbane and driving a truck," he said. I heard that they were going to be building a pineapple factory at Northgate and thought it would be a good time to grow pineapples."

Hec said he spent many hours working on the farm to bring it up to a productive level.

"It was really run-down when I bought it, and it took a lot of hard work to get it going," he said.

Farming ran in the Zerner family blood as Hec grew up on his father’s dairy farm at Cooroy. He then followed in his father’s footsteps and purchased a dairy farm at Rocklea, just prior to World War Two.

"The farm actually saved me from going to war," he said. "I got called up to go, but someone had to stay home and keep producing milk for all the people left behind. Our milk carter got taken in, so we had no milkman, and I had to do the lot."

Due to the lack of available workers, he had only four hours sleep each night during the war years, going to bed at 7pm and getting up at 11pm.

"We were a load short of people so I did the lot myself with my wife’s help," he said.

Hec worked the Ilkley farm from 1949 to 1960, growing pineapples, bananas, beans and paw paw until the need for electricity saw him move into Palmwoods.

"We wanted power, so we moved from the farm, and bought a house closer to town. We still worked the farm from there," he said. "Eventually we sold the farm, and I did work around the place."

It was during this time that Hec was first introduced to the sport of lawn bowls, which he played for 40 years.

"When we moved I shifted my bank account to Palmwoods, and then bank manager Bill Wild suggested I should come and have a game of bowls," he said. "I enjoyed it very much, meeting all the different people, so I continued playing."

Hec has seen many changes in Palmwoods during his time in the area.

"I can’t say they were the 'bad old days’ because they really were good times," he said. "People have changed over the years, that’s for sure. People don’t have the time to have quick chat with you, they’re just too busy.

"In the years gone by, the old hands were always ready to have a chat - you could always talk and joke with them."

Two years ago, Hec moved to Sundale Palmwoods where he enjoys a feeling of community.

"When I was living in Eudlo they built a new development and a lot of young folk moved in and I just didn’t feel quite at home," he said.

"I moved to Sundale and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’ve made really good friends, everyone gets along really well and there is really a good community feeling."