November 21, 2025
Former Wondai Shire councillor Col Marquardt was remembered last month at a funeral held at St John Trinity Lutheran Church in Wondai.
Col, 94, served for 22 years on the Wondai Council and was also well-known throughout the region for his cream run and mail deliveries.
His beloved wife Desley pre-deceased him in 2018.
Col is survived by his four children: Leanne, Darren, Stuart and Bronwyn, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
This is an edited version of the Eulogy, prepared by his daughter Bronwyn, which was read at his funeral service on October 16 by his son Stuart.
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Eulogy
Colin Leonard Marquardt was born on December 7, 1930.
He was baptised January 1, 1931, at St John’s Lutheran Church, Mondure, and confirmed there on March 3, 1946.
He passed away at Orana Aged Care Kingaroy on Tuesday, October 7, aged 94 years.
The Younger Years
Dad was a record breaker from the day he was born.
The offspring of Alice and Hermann Marquardt, at 14 pounds, he was the largest newborn the staff at the Marburg Hospital had ever seen.
This fact often caused mirth in the Marquardt household, with his late wife Desley frequently quipping that he was still the biggest baby anyone had ever seen! As an only child, Colin was certainly doted on, but grew up to be an esteemed member of his community and beyond.
He also had a great sense of humour and didn’t mind making his kids, grandkids, and great grandkids laugh at his expense.
There were always chocolates and soft drinks in the fridge for the young ones and ice blocks in summer. Rarely a family gathering went by without Pa-Pa, as he was known, bearing a large watermelon or some of his home-grown mandarins, lemonades or limes for all to share, depending on the season.
Dad remembered his childhood fondly. Alice and Hermann’s homestead Chelmer was within eyesight of the local Chelmsford School. But with the family running two champion Australian Illawarra Shorthorn (AIS) dairy cattle studs, helping with Oakvilla and establishing Chelmer, young Colin’s education began early.
From a toddler, he helped his parents work with the stock … milking, and preparing cattle for showing, not just at shows around the South Burnett region but throughout Queensland and at the Royal National Exhibition in Brisbane, now known as the Ekka, which was then a hugely prestigious event.
The farm also had its own smokehouse, and the Marquardts hosted regular butchering days where beasts and other stock would be slaughtered and made into produce. Popular events were wurst and sausage making, all put away to be smoked, and divided up between families and friends.
School life began in 1937. On his first day, Dad’s much-loved little Fox Terrier dog Tip accompanied him, and refused to return home. So began a pattern with the faithful foxy joining Dad during the day, sleeping on the verandah during lessons, playing with students – and eating plenty of scraps at recess!
This continued until Tip died a few years later, due to a suspected snake bite. The relationship sparked a lifelong love of dogs, which spread to dachshunds and mini-dachshunds, when he started his own family. This ended with Dad and Mum’s last spoiled mini long-haired Dachshund, Luther, who loved a biscuit dipped in coffee!
A talented musician and country and western singer, it was at a school concert where Dad sang for the first time in public. His songs, “Two Little Girls In Blue” and “Where The Dog Sits On The Tucker Box”, were received with rapturous applause.
Career
Dad began his musical career, playing guitar, piano accordion, singing country and western music, and yodelling.
He performed at countless concerts and radio broadcasts throughout Queensland, and was honoured to be chosen to appear on Australia’s Amateur Hour when it was broadcast from Gympie in 1948. He was proud of finishing third in Australia’s Amateur hour competition one year.
Dad started public and community life soon after – you name it, he was in it! He also took on many jobs to provide for his wife and family.
Dad was a tireless parish worker with the Lutheran Church, particularly in Wondai, eventually becoming an elder and lay reader. He taught Sunday School, often collecting children of families without transport so that they could attend. He was a regular at Synod and involved in pivotal moments in the Lutheran Church in Queensland, assisting with the selection of land for the Luther Heights Youth Camp in Coolum and with the establishment of Orana Aged Care in Kingaroy, where Mum and Dad spent their final years.
Dad and Mum were devoted to the Lutheran Church. Their strong faith was of much comfort to them throughout their lives and in their fi nal years.
Dad was invited to serve on the then Wondai Shire Council at the age of 27.
At that time he was the youngest serving councillor, and we believe at the time of his death, he was the last surviving councillor from that period.
Dad stood for election on a number of occasions and served on Wondai Shire Council for 22 years. He was proud of his contribution to the Shire on many levels but being part of the Council that delivered the sewage system for the town was significant as it greatly improved the quality of life for local residents.
Dad loved sport throughout his life, whether it be Queensland Rugby League, cricket or his beloved tennis. Dad lived through the golden age of Australian Tennis and recounted with great fondness attending a packed Milton for a Davis Cup final.
In 1958, he helped form and was the inaugural president of the Wondai District Tennis Association and was fortunate to have an ant-bed court on the family property at Chelmsford, which no doubt helped his game. Another highlight for Dad was attending the inaugural Sheffield Shield Cricket win for Queensland in 1995, featuring the South Burnett’s very own Carl Rackemann.
Dad lived a life of service and was heavily involved in the Wondai Lions Club serving in executive roles, including as President for a period of time.
He was an original volunteer at the Visitor Information Centre at the Wondai Timber Museum from when it opened in 2001.
Dad continued this work for many years proudly sharing the history of the district, until Mum’s health required him to stay at home as her carer.
Dad was a Golden Fleece and later Mobil fuel agent for many years, and the family had a petrol pump in the backyard. Sometimes people fallen on hard times would drop in to beg for fuel, at all times of the day and night, long after the children had gone to bed! Dad could never turn them down. Sometimes they paid him back, sometimes they were never seen again, but Dad insisted it was the Christian thing to do!
There were also 44 gallon drums of fuel stored near the back yard, and Dad would manoeuvre them on to the truck with his bare hands! He was remarkably strong at a time when gyms never existed, just grit and hard work. Despite this, he never needed any back, hip or knee surgery and remained physically strong his entire life.
During COVID, when activities stopped at his then home at the Orana Retirement Village, Dad would take long walks through the nearby bush at the top of Fisher’s Lookout, always emerging unharmed.
He was an agent for Comet transport and, amongst other things, delivered the first Apple Computers in the region. He also delivered furniture, cream and butter, carried peanuts and grains, and was a contractor for Australia Post, but more on that later. His delivery experience meant he could always be relied on to help family and friends move home, and to pack cars on journeys from afar. His grand and great grandchildren remember him racing their cars to the end of the street and waving goodbye with a hanky – once he’d given backing out directions, of course.
Dad was also a teacher assistant at Wondai State School, for a time supporting the Manual Arts department of the school, and having only fond memories of his own school days, remained heavily involved with Chelmsford State School. He was honoured that his role as a Wondai Shire Councillor led to him being asked to represent the shire at the school’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 1970.
Love and Marriage
As mentioned, Dad was staunch with his faith and became involved in Lutheran Youth activities.
At one of these, he met Desley, who became the love of his life. She was part of a group of young people visiting from Brisbane, and had been billeted with the Marquardts. Romance blossomed on the family tennis court and on the farm. Dad began taking the long drive to meet Desley in the city on a Friday afternoon, when she had finished her job as a luxury seamstress in Queen Street.
They courted over milkshakes at the Shingle Inn, long letters, and Dad eventually asked Desley’s father for her hand in marriage.
Their wedding day on August 16, 1958, was another headline turner, when the happy couple were accidentally locked into the building where the official photographs were taken. The caretaker apparently finished early to have a few beers at the nearest pub, and the wedding party had to shout for help – there were no mobile phones back then! The commotion attracted the attention of a reporter and photographer from the Courier and Sunday Mail nearby, who took a photo of the new husband and wife peering out from behind a huge steel grille.
The couple were finally released, arriving late to their own wedding reception, much to the relief of family and friends who thought they had been in an accident.
The next day, they found themselves famous throughout Queensland as they had made the front page of the newspaper with the headline: “Trapped: What A Thing To Happen On Your Wedding Day”.
Colin bought a house in Wondai for his bride, and they went on to have their children, Leanne, Darren, Stuart and Bronwyn, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren, of whom they were extremely proud. The grandchildren, and great grandchildren could get away with things their own children never could!
The Cream Run and ‘Col the Mail’
Following their marriage in 1958, Dad and Mum bought a cream run.
Back then, the cream run included deliveries of everything, including meat, fuel, bread, groceries, general goods and even the infamous school milk, small bottles of milk delivered in steel crates with foil lids.
These were often warm by the time the kids drank them and frequently had been pierced by thirsty birds, but students were still made to drink them, much to their disgust – not that this was any of Dad’s fault, but it’s another one for the history books.
Farmers didn’t often go to towns back then, so Dad was a lifeline for them. He became a Justice of the Peace to make their lives easier, witnessing documents as he delivered goods, and began as a mail contractor with Australia Post. He also regularly carted peanuts from farms to the Kingaroy Peanut silos, grains to other factories and furniture around the district.
One of his jobs was transporting the South Burnett Times from its Wondai office to Kingaroy. It had to be done overnight so the presses could run the next morning.
He also made cream deliveries to the Wondai Butter Factory until it closed, and subsequently, the Kingaroy factory and lastly Murgon, which spelled the end of the cream era in the dairying industry in the district. Dad was the last surviving cream carrier from that era.
As an Australia Post contractor, Dad became fondly known as ‘Col The Mail’. Collecting, sorting and delivering the mail was a project which took hours. He travelled more than 170km at a time – one of the longest inland postal routes in Queensland, and worked for 48 years as a postie, still going strong at 70.
He is believed to be the longest serving postie in the region and possibly Queensland, still helping out after retirement because the route was so complicated. Over the years, Dad went through five trucks, six utilities and eight cars.
Christmas was always a busy time as he delivered presents and cards to all the farms in the district. But he received too, with various items making it back home addressed to: ‘Col The Mail.’
During his carrying days, he had three accidents, one where he lost his thumb. He drove himself home that day, with part of his thumb in one hand and the other part loosely bandaged in a hanky after having become entangled in a roll of weld mesh whilst unloading at a farm with no one home.
“Desley you’ll have to drive me to hospital”, he told his stunned wife.
The thumb never could be reattached but it healed to become a shorter one. He told kids who were thumb suckers that he had lost it from sucking his thumb and they better stop or it would happen to them too!
Another significant accident was when Dad, ever courteous, had pulled over to the side of the road to let traffic go by with a full load of peanuts. The side of the road collapsed and Dad found himself trapped upside down in the truck with his leg caught in the door and petrol leaking on him.
The German Relatives
Dad was proud of his German heritage. The Marquardts and Schulzs (Dad’s mother Alice was a Schulz) are descendants of German contingents who arrived in Australia in the late 1800s, travelling a long voyage by sea, to make a better life.
Many settled in the Lockyer Valley of Queensland and Dad would love to visit all of his cousins in the Lockyer Valley.
Dad would often refer to grandmother Marquardt who was born as Gertrude Otto and came to Australia from Hessen, Germany, aged 19 years in 1887. She married Hermann Marquardt in 1892 and had nine children.
Others remained in the motherland, including Gertrude’s sister Catherine and descendants of both families have kept in touch since that time. Visits to and from each side of the globe ensued, much to Dad’s delight and he was always thrilled to welcome the German family to Wondai and the surrounding district. They enjoyed seeing the original Chelmer Homestead, past and present family homes, and farms.
The Memories
Wherever he went, Dad would introduce himself as Col Marquardt from Wondai. If the person hadn’t heard of Wondai – or even if they had – he would proceed to tell them all about the town, and the South Burnett.
We often wondered how many visitors actually followed through as a result of Dad’s passion for the district.
Though Dad and Mum’s family life was spent at a Queenslander home in Pring Street, Wondai, they eventually retired to Alice and Hermann’s former home in Cadell Street, Wondai. They added some improvements, like reverse cycle air-conditioning, solar panelling, and a large deck, which was the site of many gatherings including Dad’s famous BBQ breakfasts.
Dad was a confident and articulate public speaker, and was a popular choice as an MC for weddings and other community events. So much so, he wrote his own book of jokes to tell for different occasions. We found it when cleaning out Mum and Dad’s home at Cadell Street after Dad moved into Orana retirement village following Mum’s death.
Dad was devoted to Mum, who he had been married to for nearly 60 years when she died, also late of Orana. He was devastated when they were separated due to her ill health, and visited her daily. It was tough to see Dad suffer her loss when Mum passed away but he was comforted that she had gone to her heavenly home. It now gives us solace to think of Mum and Dad being together again.
Dad and Mum both spent their final days at the Orana Aged Care facility owned by the Lutheran Church and which they ironically helped to establish over 50 years ago.
As a family we express deep gratitude to the staff of Orana who cared for Dad so lovingly through to the very end. We are grateful too to Pastor Jordan who ministered to Dad and who is conducting the service day.
Colin Leonard Marquardt was one of a kind, small in stature with a big heart, generous spirit, strong faith, and a deep love for his family and friends, the district of Wondai where he lived his whole life…and his hair!
Dad will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
- Related article: Obituary: Desley Marquardt 1934-2018
