Stanley John Chambers oral history interview, 31 August 2016

Stan Chambers

From his birth in 1943, Stan Chambers’ life was tied to his parent’s property at 111 Palm Creek Road, Mount Pleasant. His father, Thomas, had inherited the property from his father, who ran up to 70 head of cattle and grew banana trees on the 225-acre property.

Stan confesses, however, 

most of it was real steep timbered country, so not much good for anything.

In the 1970s the farm refocused on banana and pineapple crops, which remained the farm’s staple when Stan took over operation in the 1980s.

Stan was thankful when they introduced 4-wheel tractors in the 1970s, recalling had one of those Fiat Hillside Crawler Tractors 

otherwise I wouldn’t be able to work on half as much as I did… I don’t know how they got on with just the 2-wheel tractor.

Pineapple farming became more difficult for smaller operators during this time. Importation of canned pineapple from overseas reduced local demand. Stan used to send all his fruit to the markets at Rocklea, but once the larger growers couldn’t can all their stock they began selling into the market sort of spoilt it for everybody else then, He kept going in the industry, but eventually needed to find employment elsewhere.

Stan took a keen interest in competitive wood chopping, although it was more for recreation than profit.

couldn’t live on it those days. Now 2 or 3 of them have got sponsors and I think they do alright, but those days it was just a sport. Anyone went in thinking they were going to make money soon found out they couldn’t.

Stan has been an office bearer at Mount Pleasant Hall for nearly 50 years, where he has often been impressed by the efforts of the community.

Especially amongst the, I’ll say, older residents, they all sort of chipped in to keep things going and that. Some of the newer people in the area there, it’s just a residence for them, they travel into Brisbane early in the morning, by the time they get back, there’s not much time, especially in the winter.

Today he has given up farming, although he still lives on the property. Around 2000 he was asked to help with the construction of the replica schoolhouse at Samford Historical Museum - he hasn’t left since. He does numerous demonstrations for school classes that visit the museum, showing the blacksmithing and carpentry skills used by pioneers who settled the region.

Sometimes you wonder whether they’re taking anything in, but when you see their parents and they reckon they can’t stop talking about it for 2 days or so at times, so it makes you feel pretty good.