Greenhalgh thrived on history
KATHLEEN Winifred Smith was born in Bourke, New South Wales on April 24, 1936, to Harold Bernard Whyte Smith and Minetta Elizabeth Smith (nee Webb).
As Kath related this was the back of Bourke where she learnt to walk in a 4000-acre paddock.
Her early schooling was via correspondence, then when she was eight, the family – her parents and her younger brothers Ross and Graham – moved to Blacktown.
The principal in her new school paired Kath with a girl named Margaret Pearce, who had recently lost her father.
They became inseparable and a bond was formed that continued for some 73 years.
She continued her high schooling in Parramatta, New South Wales, and on completion gained employment at St Marys where she met John Thomas Greenhalgh, who was an apprentice carpenter and joiner.
They were engaged at 18 and two years later they married at St John’s Church in Parramatta on October 6, 1956.
Not long after their marriage they struck hard times with the building industry downturn.
Kath was the sole breadwinner, working as an accounts clerk, cycling to Penrith daily.
John found this unsatisfactory so he travelled in to Sydney and signed up to join the New South Wales Police.
He was sworn in during 1957 and posted to Penrith.
Stephen, their first child, was born in March of 1960, followed by Bradley in October of 1961 and Rodney in July of 1963.
Rodney was killed in a tragic accident in 1966.
In 1967, the family moved to New Guinea where John had joined the Royal Papua and New Guinea Constabulary and was posted to Rabaul.
They enjoyed a carefree lifestyle until 1973 when they returned to Australia, this time settling in Acland, Queensland.
They bought a farm which was unique because it had a small underground coal mine on it.
Coal mining had an impact on the family and provoked Kath’s interest in history, both family and local.
She joined the Darling Downs family history society and started researching the family on both sides.
She was extremely excited to discover that both she and John had two ancestors each who had arrived on the First Fleet.
A fellow researcher contacted her to advise that these four ancestors had crossed paths.
John’s ancestors came across a freshly killed goat mauled by a dingo. The goat happened to be owned by Kath’s ancestors.
They decided to use the meat for a wedding breakfast and Kath would often recall this event as “his lot ate my lot’s goat”.
During the 33 years that Kath lived in Acland, she collected a wealth of knowledge on the history of the area and she and John established the mine museum when the mine closed in 1984.
Kath received a John Herbert Award for Excellence in Heritage Conservation, awarded by the National Trust of Queensland in 1986/87.
In 1988, she received the Zonta Bicentenary Woman of Achievement Heritage Award and in 2006 was awarded the Rosalie Shire Australia Day Citizen Award.
Following her retirement to Oakey, Kath published her book A Gathered History of Acland in 2011.
Kath and John moved to Oakey in 2006.
Kath was admitted to the Oakey McDonald Nursing Home on December 14, 2016. She died on May 24, 2017. She is survived by John, sons Stephen and Bradley, four grandchildren Brodie, Korey, Crystal and Samantha and greatgrandchild Torah.