Mary V (i)(a) & brother Francis George Perring (i)(a). Alfred John Perring (i)(a)
Alfred John PERRING (i)(a).
Mary V (i)(a) & brother Francis George Perring (i)(a).
Francis George Perring (i)(a). Born August 6, 1906. Died July 20 1996. Francis Perring (i)(a) was the son of George Alfred (i)(a) and Bridget Perring both of whom were born into pioneering farming families from the Seelands and Carrs Creek areas near Grafton, NSW, settling in the 1860s.
Francis (i)(a) spent his school days at both Alumy Creek and Seelands schools and in his teens worked with his father and uncles and also on the local riverboats where he gained his steam boiler ticket.
During his 20s he worked in Sydney, NSW and Brisbane, Qld until the death of his father in 1930, when he returned to the Clarence river area.
He married Joan Craig in 1932 at Barretts Creek where they share farmed until successfully tendering for the operation of the Southampton ferry service.
At the expiry of the tender the family moved to Jackadgery where Francis (i)(a) worked as a plant operator for the Department of Main Roads until enlisting in the Royal Australian Air Force in 1939.
On his return in 1945 he started a small contracting business, operating until 1955 when he took a position as a boiler operator at the then new Grafton brewery, then to the Grafton Base Hospital and finally the Grafton Dairy Co-op from where he retired.
Francis (i)(a) spent a lot of his early retirement relieving some of his old mates working boilers around Grafton, until his health began to fail and he retired for good.
Francis (i)(a) lived through two world wars and served in one and raised a family through the depression.
Francis (i)(a) and Joan Perring had the following children.
Shirley Joan Perring (i)(a). Born 20 March 1932 in Grafton, NSW.
Alfred John Perring (i)(a). Born 2 July 1936.
Alfred John Perring (i)(a) married Anne Margaret Schipp in St Matthews Church, South Grafton, NSW, 4 May 1957.
Alfred John Perring (i)(a) and Anne Margaret Schipp had the following children.
Mark John Perring (i)(a). Born, 18 November 1957 in Grafton, NSW. Currently living in Brisbane, Qld.
Craig Thomas Perring (i)(a). Born, 13 November 1959 in Grafton, NSW. Currently living in Grafton, NSW.
Grant Andrew Perring (i)(a). Born, 19 April 1961 in Grafton, NSW. Currently living in Uralba, NSW.
Gaye Maree Perring (i)(a). Born, 21 November 1962 in Grafton, NSW.
Anna Lea Perring (i)(a) Born, 2 February 1969 in Grafton, NSW.
Alfred John Perring (i)(a) son of Francis
(i)(a) and Joan
Perring.
"As for all the Perring families in the Tamworth, Nundle, Manila areas being related, Les Perring, who I visited on 25 March 2002 (78yrs old 26 March), told me of a time in 1926 when my great great uncle went visiting to Tamworth and one of the Hannaford cousins took him to "meet some relatives". When he came back to Seelands he told his nephew Donald, Les`s father that there must have been ""a hundred of them"". - Alfred John Perring (i)(a) in 2002.
Clarence life – The Daily Examiner – Profile
Fearless Fred - he’s a man of letters
What drove a prolific Perring to put pen to paper
PROFILER
IAN THOMSON
“I THINK it is about time the people of this city got together and started to question this council, not as radicals, but as residents who care.
“Taswegians managed to rid themselves of one blight, namely Richard Butler. If they play their cards right, they might be able to say good-bye to Bob Brown.
“What a prospect, vote Labor and get all the old left wing ideologically-motivated geriatrics appearing out of exile on their walking frames ready to demolish the workplace accords and this place in the sun that has been so hard won since Keating’s ‘depression we had to have.’
As you can see, Grafton’s Fred Perring doesn’t hold back when he gets a bee in his bonnet about issues that get up his nose.
Local, State or Federal — it doesn’t matter — this analytical former earthmoving contractor rams home the message as if he was still at the controls of a bulldozer.
Hundreds of his letters have bombarded the desk of successive editors of this newspaper, in an exercise of freedom of speech that’s as prolific as it is powerful.
Fred was born, raised and educated in Grafton. After leaving Grafton High as an A-grade student, he rolled up his sleeves and joined his father Frank in his contracting business.
In the mid 1950s he worked for a contractor to Grafton’s brewery, delivering kegs and bottles in an 18-ton truck to places as far flung as Dalby and Toowoomba in Queensland, and Tamworth, Werris Creek and Moree on this side of the border.
“That was tough work,” Fred remembers.
“Some of those old roads threatened to shake the truck to pieces. Very few bitumen roads back then, and no Gwydir High way.”
Ironically, Fred was to play a role in the construction of that same highway when he teamed up with the late Jack Lund, a legend in the earthmoving industry.
Together, Fred, Jack and their machines went wherever the work took them. They cleared land for roads, built dams and flattened trees to make way for banana plantations around Coffs Harbour and cleared for power lines in Queensland.
“We had 11 moves in seven years,” Fred recalls.
“We didn’t have much. It was a matter of strapping the old Hoover washing machine onto the back of the dozer, tossing the suitcases into the boot and away we’d go.”
Jack Lund was to go on to become a driving force behind many massive projects in Bris bane and the Gold Coast, including the Brisbane international airport, the Royal Pines golf course and the Hope Island marina complex, which the family still owns.
For the record, Jack married Ellen Livermore in 1944. Ellen is the great aunt of Australia’s Olympic hockey team captain, Grafton’s Brent Livermore.
For Fred, it was time to put some roots down. In 1962 he and wife Anne built a house in Grafton and bought earthmoving equipment for general contract work, and with the then Department of Main Roads.
His new business included clearing land on the Lower River for cane and cattle. In 1969 he built a mobile timber mill, churning out timber for the burgeoning Brisbane market. Things were looking pretty lucrative.
The Perrings bought a property, putting the timber mill on a permanent site and reaping the rewards of a need for timber.
But in 1980, Fred was struck down with a frightening strain of arthritis -doctors telling him he was on the scrap heap.
“It was terrible,” he says.
“At one stage my fingers looked like bunches of bananas. It took me three years to get over that bout and I got hit again in 1995. I was moving like a rusty gate.”
Fred’s still not convinced it was arthritis that bowled him over. lie suspects either Barmah forest fever or Ross River fever. He will probably never know.
What he does know is that one of his stints in hospital led to the letter writing that has made him a talking point around the Clarence Valley. A patient in the ward was a staunch unionist.
“This bloke had a few work- mates visit him from time to time,” Fred says.
“One night they were discussing tactics to slow down their employer’s business because he was buying new machinery which may mean a loss of jobs. I got involved and later tackled the union issue with letters to the editor.
“I wanted people to know about things like staunch union ism and its dangers. It just grew from there. I’m a better writer than I am a speaker.”
Many of you who have read Fred’s scathing letters might dismiss him as dogmatic and one- eyed when he opens both barrels on Labor leaders past and pre sent.
The truth is that on a Federal basis at least, he has just as much contempt for a couple of Coalition leaders.
Here are a few of his thoughts on some well-known politicians and former politicians:
Gough Whitlam: Arrogant. A high-and-mighty attitude. Thought he was the supreme
leader, but he wasn’t.
Bob Hawke: Voted in because he was portrayed as a man for the people, but didn’t live up to those expectations.
Paul Keating: Rubbed me the wrong way. Similar to Whitlam. The so-called ‘world’s greatest treasurer’ led us to a recession that turned into a depression.
Malcolm Fraser: Pompous and arrogant. Best described as Whitlam in disguise.
John Hewson: A weak and shallow bloke. Keating trampled all over him in Parliament.
And as far as the present day is concerned:
Mark Latham: Still watching him. Want to know his involvement with the Orange Grove shopping centre fiasco in Sydney. Hate to see him go the way of other Labor leaders.
Bob Brown: A one-paced horse. Concerned only with the environment. You’ve got to push all the angles if you want to be the king pin.
John Howard: The best Prime Minister in my time. Achieved more than any other PM. He s a family man and he s believable.
Fred Perring also believes in family values. He and wife Anne have five children and 12 grandkids. And they’re all very close. The 68-year-old scribe is extremely well read and a keen follower of broadcast news bulletins particularly when it comes to politics at any level. He believes the Federal election will be held in November.
Not surprisingly, he predicts a comfortable victory for the John Howard-led Coalition.
We’ll soon see whether or not Fred is politically correct.
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