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Queensland Country LifeThursday, August 04, 2011
Page : 98
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‘Bud’ leaves lasting legacy He was characteristically filled
with energy and enthusiasm,and his interests covered
Australia and –unsurprisingly, givenhis family history –far beyond.
BRIAN ‘Bud’ Hubird Ford diedat St Vincent’s Hospital onFriday June 10, 2011, aged 86.
He was a dentist, cattle breeder andhistorian in the Miles region formore than four decades.
He was characteristically filled withenergy and enthusiasm, and hisinterests covered Australia and –unsurprisingly, given his familyhistory – far beyond.
His father Hugh Ford was with theAustralian Light Horse VeterinaryCorps in World War I, campaigningacross Palestine to Beersheba,Jerusalem and Damascus, onceencountering TE Lawrence(‘Lawrence of Arabia’) on a resupplyrun in the desert.
Years before she married and hadchildren, Bud’s mother MondiFowles had travelled alone, at theage of 19, to China to run the house-hold of her stepbrother LT CharlesHannam who, after service with theBushveldt Carbineers in the BoerWar, had become a successfulmerchant in Manchuria.
After the Great War Hugh andMondi eloped to Melbourne andwere married, and returned toQueensland to take up a soldier-settler block called Mosabi atKandanga, near Gympie.
They had two sons, Brian in 1924and Peter in 1929.
Young Peter nicknamed his olderbrother ‘Budder’ or ‘Buddie’ – andso Brian became ‘Bud’. The twobrothers were very close andremained so throughout their lives.
In the middle of the GreatDepression, during the devastatingdrought of 1935-36 and following apermanent injury to Hugh’s hand,the family moved to Miles, whereHugh became the stock inspector.
Both boys dearly wanted to becomegraziers. They were excellent horse-men, and learned all they couldabout stock, particularly fromMethuen Morgan, the patriarch andowner of Arubial outsideCondamine. Instead, their fatherdecided when the time came theywould both do dentistry.
Bud completed primary school inMiles, high school at Churchie, andbegan dental school at theUniversity of Queensland.
Like many students early in WorldWar II, he dropped out and joinedup, enlisting in the RAAF and train-ing on what was then highly secrettechnology called Radar.
He served with an early warningradar unit on Peron Island north ofAustralia and later at Truscott Airbase on the north-west coast, where
he flewas a radaroperator onCatalina flyingboats on long-range reconnais-sance missions.
After World War II hereturned to dental school andfell in love with his glamorousand brilliant chemistry lecturer,Patricia Anne Shann.
They married, moved to Mileswhere he established his first dentalpractice, and bought a small prop-erty, Aldersyde, where they raisedfive children. Bud expanded hispractice to include Wandoan,Taroom, Tara and later Springsure.
Bud and Patricia became active inthe Miles Pony Club where all theirchildren competed.
Bud was on the Miles Show Societyfor many years, serving as
president and ringmaster.He was made a lifemember in 1988. He builta polocrosse field onAldersyde and competedfor years with the Drillhamteam.
He became a successfulstud breeder, initially withthe help of Janet Officer,establishing a fine herd of
PollDevons on Aldersyde,several of which won champi-onships in the Brisbane and SydneyShows.
Then his great friend Archie Nixonhelped him establish a Herefordstud which also produced prize-winning bulls and heifers. Bud cred-ited Kate Cochrane with caring forand preparing stock for shows.
Bud and Patricia were pillars of theAnglican Church; she played theorgan at St Lukes in Miles and laterat St James’s Toowoomba, for morethan 60 years. Bud decided he madehis contribution by providing foursons as altar boys.
They were active in nearly everygroup and organisation in the Milesdistrict, from amateur theatre toRotary, to the shire council.
Each year at Aldersyde they hostedColombo Plan students from India,Pakistan, Malaysia and Singapore
duringholidays
from theUniversity of
Queensland.
Bud – like hisbrother Peter – made a
lifelong study ofAboriginal history and
culture. Bud began collectingAboriginal artefacts during his time
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Queensland Country LifeThursday, August 04, 2011
Page : 98
Section :
Edition :
Region : Qld Regional
Page : 2 of 3
Circulation : 33,057
Area Of Clip : 855.67 sqcm
Clip ID : 0000001
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licensed copy or Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth) s 48A copy
g gon Peron Island. In the early 1950she went on expeditions into theSimpson Desert with his old friendsCharles Lethbridge and ‘Tiny’Cameron, one of Australia’s leadingornithologists.
As a consequence, Bud was electedto the Royal Geographical Society in1954. He also became an authorityon the life and expeditions of theexplorer Ludwig Leichhardt.
In 1964 he was invited by ANUProfessor John Mulvaney to work on an archeological dig in theCarnarvon Ranges. Some of the artefacts were stored in his dentalsurgery in Miles before being senton to the Queensland Museum.Graziers who turned up artifacts ontheir properties regularly broughtthem to Bud’s surgery for safekeep-ing. To provide a proper place forthese and other historical material inthe district, Bud was a founder andfirst president of the Miles Historical
Society. He proposed the buildingof the Miles Historical Village whichhas become a landmark for touristsand historians.
Bud’s love for flying began when hewas 12 and his parents paid for himto go for a joyride with CharlesKingsford Smith on the SouthernCross, in Brisbane. He built the firstprivate airstrip in the Miles district,on “Aldersyde” which became theregional base for Ag-Av, one of thefirst crop dusting companies in theregion. Pilots in World War II TigerMoths, and new Chipmunks andPawnees regularly put on aerobaticsshows over Miles before landing for
the night at Aldersyde.
Over the years, Bud and Patriciawere generous dinner hosts tohundreds.
Bud was a prolific letter writer, tofriends, and as a campaigner for ahost of causes. Continuously sinceWorld War II he has been active inLegacy, lobbying for improvedrights and services for war widowsand their children. He has been aneffective campaigner for the rightsof ex-servicemen and women, espe-cially his old colleagues in the RAAF,and the radar branch, for whom hehelped win Gold Card health insur-ance and war service benefits. Hecampaigned for equitable rights forwidows of members of privateorganisations.
He campaigned with the govern-ment and the Australian DentalAssociation to improve conditionsfor patients and dentists in remoteregions. In time, he was made aFellow of the International Collegef d k l d dof Dentists and was acknowledged
with an award from the AustralianDental Association.
Over his lifetime, he became amaster in his Masonic Lodge; he hasbeen active in the RSL, the RAAFAssociation, the Country Party andits successors, the Churchie Council,and his dearly loved QueenslandClub where he was a committeemember for six years and mostrecently a senior member.
He always revelled in the companyof friends and family.
Bud Ford is survived by his wifePatricia, their five children Peter,Steven, Annabelle, Simon and Toby,and 11 grandchildren.
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Queensland Country LifeThursday, August 04, 2011
Page : 98
Section :
Edition :
Region : Qld Regional
Page : 3 of 3
Circulation : 33,057
Area Of Clip : 855.67 sqcm
Clip ID : 0000001
Copyright Agency Limited (CAL) licensed copy or Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth) s 48A copy
BRIAN H FORD 1924-08-18 to 2011-06-10
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