John Joseph (Jack) McAllister was born 24th June 1901 the 5th of fourteen children of Albert McAllister and Helen Baker. All the children were born in Charters Towers. Albert was a saddler, and his sons joined him in the business.
As a child, Jack attended Mt Carmel College. I imagine his brothers and sisters also attended one of the three Catholic Schools in town. The first Catholic school was established by the Sisters of Mercy in St Columba Catholic church in 1876 with 106 females and 52 males enrolled. In 1882 the same order established St Mary’s College and in 1902 the Christian Brothers established a school for boys, Mt Carmel College. The order of the Good Samaritans took over administration of the former schools in 1900. This may explain why three of the McAllister women joined this order.
The McAllister family had a close association with the Catholic Church. Four of Jack’s sisters became nuns. Three joined the order of Good Samaritans: – Maud Adelaide (b1904) became Sister Osmund, Elizabeth Ellen (b 1908) became Sister Bernadette, Hilda Bernadette (b1917) became Sister Bertill. Alice Eileen (b1912) joined the Order of Perpetual Adoration and became Sister Peter. I don’t know when any of them died. Jack’s nephew, Sean Swayne, became a priest in Ireland and became an advisor on Pastoral Liturgy.
According to his children, Jack had a fine voice and would often appear in College Pantomime productions.
1917 was a momentous year for the McAllister family. In September their eldest son, James Alexander is killed in Belgium . 31st October Hilda is born and just two months later their fourteen-year-old son Alec drowns in the Burdekin River at a school picnic. Jack was just two years older than Alec and had sisters on either side so possibly would have formed a close bond. It would have been a very difficult time for him and the whole family.
According to electoral rolls, in 1925 Jack lived at Church Street West End and was employed as a shop assistant. He would have met his bride, Ann Hunter, here in Townsville and they married 10th December 1927. I’ll continue on Jack and Ann’s story and add what I know of the Hunter family later.
Jack and Ann were to have four girls all born in Townsville; Joy 1928, Merle 1932, Vonnie 1936 and Rae 1938.
The following is from an interview with Joy, Jack’s eldest daughter. Joy remembers going to school in Railway Estate at the convent run by the Good Samaritan sisters. St Francis Xavier’s School was on the grounds of St Patrick’s Church, Joy would go to Nanna Hunter’s for lunch, just a ten minute walk away. Nanna Hunter lived in a high house on 7th Avenue and her daughters, Ethel and Blanche had a shop in a house across the road- a type of convenience or grocery store.
Joy remembers that Nanna Hunter and her mother, Nurse Walsh lived in the upstairs area of their house and that the hospital was downstairs. Nurse Walsh delivered many babies including Joy and my mother Gladys Tully at McIlwraith St South Townsville.
” Margaret Walsh, who ran a lying-in hospital at her home in McIlwraith Street, South Townsville, only retired from her profession at the age of 74, due to ill-health. ……At the same time as they made their homes available to expectant mothers, many private midwives also raised large families of their own, skilfully juggling their commitments as a wife and mother with those of a professional midwife. South Townsville midwife Margaret Walsh raised a large family while at the same time running a private lying-in hospital. Between 1887 and 1911, Margaret and her husband William, had 13 children.” (I think I have identified 14 of their children.) What an amazing human!!!
Jack joined the railway 2nd June 1936. The family were living at Seventh Street and his profession on the electoral roll was ‘labourer’. Joy did talk about an Aunty Tess who was also a midwife, delivered Rae at the house on Seventh Stree.
When the war came Jack took his wife and small children to a campsite where they lived in a tent. Joy recollects that the first camp was called 27 Mile – probably Blue Water today. It was Jack’s job to guard the bridges. In 1939 Joy would have been eleven and remembers taking the rail motor to school, problably Bohlevale State School. Joy remembers that Ann would take the children to Townsville by railmotor and stay with either her mother in Railway Estate or with Dot, her younger sister.
The next posting for Jack was a railway siding near Fernvale outside Brisbane. There the family had a railway house which was wooden. It would have been a huge improvement for Ann bringing up her young children. Joy remembers going to school at Fernvale.
It was during their time at Fernvale that Jack met an old hermit who lived on the line and would come in to the small town to get his supplies. He would often sit and chat with Jack for hurs and tell him about his own life. He claimed to be Dan Kelly and many years later Joy found an article in the Post wish supports the idea that this fellow lived on the Fernvale line and did claim to be the infamous Dan Kelly. He met his demise on the Fernvale line in 1948.
1943 and the family was still in Fernvale as Joy rmembers that her mother organised for her to have a job in Brisbane and live with a family in Auckenflower by the name of Timms.
At the end of that year Jack and Ann moved to Brisbane and lived at 40 Gregory Street, Auchenflower. Housing in Brisbane was difficult to get and this was a share house- half a house. Familes shared the toilet facilities and the laundry. There were two separate kitchens and separate showers. Joy moved in with her parents.
Ann was determined to have a better life and sought employment much to Jack’s chargrin. She found a job as a sales assistant at Penney’s a supermarket in the city and worked full time. She would have been about thirty-nine or forty at the time. She worked there on and off for almost twenty years. According to Joy she was attracted not only by the income but by the social life that working gave her. She made many friends.
Joy remembers too, attending parties at the Gibsons where she and her parents would go. Millie Gibson, the daughter, played the piano and organised a sing-a-long mainly for the soldies with tea and cake to follow. These gatherings were held in the house in Aukenflower in the lounge-dining room most Saturday evenings and often twenty to thirty people would attend.
Jack continued to work for the railways and became a railway examiner checking connected carriages.
1956 and Vonnie marries John Strong. A wedding is always an occasion for a family get together and this was no different.
Parents grandparents cousins aunts as well as nephews are all welcome. Below is a photo at Vonnie’s wedding- left to right: Julia Cowie, Joy, Nanna Hunter, Ann McAllister, Rae with young Peter and Merle with John.
Joy remembers that on the 20 July 1960 her beloved father, Jack, died suddenly. He was just fifty-eight years old. He was working at Main Junction when he took a turn and initially they thought he had hit his head. He was rushed to hospital but never regained consciousness and died of a cerebral haemorrhage just a few days later. He was surrounded by his wife and daughters. His funeral was at St Ignatius Church Toowond and he was interned at the Toowong cemetery.
This was just three weeks after Jack and Ann had moved into their first home at Zillmere. Because of their age and financial position the banks would not lend them money for a home which they dearly wanted. Ann in particular was concerned about her future and realised the situation they would find themselves in if they reached pension age and still needed to rent. Joy’s husband, Laurie, arranged for them to acquire a loan through a credit company, Custom Credit. It would have been incredibly high interest.
Immediately after Jack’s death, Ann moved in with Joy and the children as she was afraid to go home because she thought she was about to lose everything and face destitution. It was fortuitious that this loan required mortgage insurance and as a result the loan was paid out at Jack’s death and Ann was able to stay in her home.
Joy remembers that her mother was a statuesque woman with a slim build, clear complextion and dark brown hair. Although quite demanding of her family she was socially very convivial and had a large group of friends. She continued to work a t J C Penneys in the Valley and found it was an easy commute from her home in Zillmere which was close to the railway station. Later she worked as a cleaner at the Roma Street Station.
Ann died 6th April 1971. She was 64.
Much of the information about Jack and Ann I received from their eldest daughter Joy -my mother-in-law.
The Tagney Hood 