Bob Stanley was the speaker at the club meeting on Tuesday night, 19 April 2016.
Bob is a long time Rotarian, the longest serving and eldest in the current club membership, shared about a small part of his life in the South Pacific.
Bob was born in Tamworth in 1928. Growing up in the depression years was challenging in many ways particularly with dissimilar values/views between the new and old generations at that time.
In 1950, Bob joined the Air Force. For Bob, life often takes its own course – it was an incident in which he was hospitalised when he met a young nurse – whom he married. Nineteen fifty seven was the beginning of his adventure in British Salomon Islands when he was also assigned to wind down the estate of “Queen Emma” in Western New Guinea. Queen Emma was a well known figure in the South Pacific, was a millionairess – she shot her husband in the head in Monte Carlo for preferring his mistress. However it was tragic end in a double suicide that sealed the pact of a broken love.
After an initial intriguing encounter with 15 local tribes armed with poisoned arrows and spears, whilst recruiting labour to work on a plantation, Bob decided to go to the Salomon Islands. The Stanleys were the sole European settlers in the area of Malu’u, Malaita – Salomon Islands. Subsequently, Bob’s family became friends with the locals, most notably was Alec Wickham who lived in the Roviana lagoon area, was a well known swimmer and performed the famous 62.7 meters dive into the Yarra on March 23, 1918. As an agricultural officer, Bob helped teaching and developing the copra, cocoa and other produce. Bob’s wife, Shirley, started women’s emancipation movement through education and women’s clubs in several areas.
Bob demonstrated and described several interesting cultural artefacts from the Solomon which were given to them as presents. For example a beautifully and skillfully carved wooden fertility doll which was given to the family because the locals love the children and try to encourage Bob to have more children, bow and arrows, carved wood (of animals), seashell necklace, etc.
We thank Bob for sharing a small part of his life story. Having contributed significantly to the community of Mudgee via Rotary and other organisations, coupled with a rich life experience, Bob Stanley is indeed more than just a bob.
