Colin achieved so much in his 84 years here
He loved a friendly debate over a beer
FORMER Toowoomba alderman, pioneer land developer and businessman Colin Brimblecombe passed away recently in Brisbane aged 84.
Colin was heavily involved in civic duties during his long career in Toowoomba and played a significant role in the city’s development.
Born in Monto in 1934, Colin and his family moved throughout south-east Queensland attending Warwick and Toowoomba East State schools before moving to Brisbane where he attended Brisbane Boys’ College.
Joining the AMP Society in Brisbane in 1951, his entrepreneurial spirit was on show early when he became a caller during the square-dancing craze sweeping Brisbane.
The pay was double his weekly income from AMP.
During this time, Colin also became a member of the Northcliffe Surf Life Saving Club, every Friday afternoon joining a long line of welldressed hitchhikers on the old road between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
He participated in many sports including rugby union and boxing and was twice the Gold Coast surf ski champion while with Northcliffe.
He completed his National Service in the Royal Australian Navy and was present at the English Montebello Islands atomic bomb test in 1952 while an Able Seaman on HMAS Shoalhaven.
Later he was transferred to AMP’s Toowoomba branch before running his own agency in Roma for three years.
While in Roma he gained his private pilot’s licence. The licence gave him easy access over the years to north Queensland and the Whitsundays but he got most enjoyment from flaunting air safety rules by buzzing his future mother-inlaw’s house in east Toowoomba.
Colin left Roma to return to Toowoomba to build his AMP agency and while as housemaster and sportsmaster at the Church of England Boys School (now Toowoomba Anglican College and Preparatory School) met the school sister Jennifer Temple-Smith.
They married in 1963 and built a life in Toowoomba over the next 40 years.
Colin had a long and rewarding career in civic and public duties.
He was an alderman on the Toowoomba City Council for 12 years from 1965; chairman of the TCC Works Committee for nine years; a member of the Toowoomba Development Board for four years; and appointed by council as member of the Toowoomba Hospital Board.
He was acting mayor during the devastating hail storm in January 1976 when more than 5000 homes were damaged on the eastern side of town.
He was later appointed chairman of the Toowoomba Hospital Board and became the first State Government-appointed chairman of the Darling Downs Regional Health Authority.
Throughout this time Colin was also an active member of the Liberal Party.
Colin loved the cut and thrust of public life, debating fiercely with whoever wanted to take him on and never yielding.
Developing land was Colin’s other great passion.
He first saw the potential of scrubland on the range as the ideal place to build a family home and in 1966 bought his first farming land within Toowoomba City to subdivide into residential house lots.
He was to develop more than 600 residential allotments at Middle Ridge and Mt Lofty. His developments were the first in the city to incorporate underground power.
He was heavily involved in many Toowoomba community activities.
Col was a long-time member of the Toowoomba East Rotary Club and
COL WAS A LONG-TIME MEMBER OF THE TOOWOOMBA EAST ROTARY CLUB AND LIKED NOTHING MORE THAN TAKING HIS HOBIE CATAMARAN TO COOBY DAM MOST SUNDAYS WITH THE DARLING DOWNS SAILING CLUB.
liked nothing more than taking his Hobie catamaran to Cooby Dam most Sundays with the Darling Downs Sailing Club.
Colin loved to travel and after leaving AMP in the 1990s he bought four travel businesses which provided him the opportunity to visit all corners of the globe. He and Jennifer moved to Brisbane in the early 2000s. Colin continued to travel and he took up rowing with the Toowong Rowing Club where he was a member of the club’s famous Octogenarian 8.
Colin had a wonderful sense of humour and kind nature. He loved a beer and loved a chat.
He will be missed by many on the Darling Downs and by his wife Jennifer, sons Andrew and Tim, daughter-in-law Jeanette and grandchildren Jed and Ella.
A service for Colin will be held at the Brisbane Boys’ College Chapel at Toowong in Brisbane at 4pm on Wednesday followed by a wake at the Toowong Rowing Club.