Family mourns a ‘man of the land’
TOM Giudice, a highly respected and admired member of the Far North community, died on Tuesday, aged 93, after a shock quad bike accident.
Mr Giudice was carrying out a routine inspection of his 90-acre Bellenden Ker property when his bike fell from a four-metre embankment –a patch of earth next to pristine rainforest he had known for decades.
Emergency services recovered his body from the scene.
Despite the tragedy, Mr Giudice’s grandson Trent Cusack said his grandfather, a strong and healthy man, passed away exactly where he would have wanted to: on the land he had protected, cultivated and adored for six decades.
“He was quite incredible. Every single day he would be out on the land for a couple of hours, checking the fences and running the cattle. You’d think someone of his age would be walking with a cane, but he had none of that,” Mr Cusack said.
“It was at the very edge of the rainforest. It’s a beautiful spot … we always said we thought he would die that way: on the land. We couldn’t see him being in a hospital deteriorating. He died exactly where he would have wanted to go.
“The land was definitely who he was. He was at peace.”
Mr Giudice immigrated to Australia with his family from his north Italian hometown of Lovero after the First World War when he was nine years old.
“They were pretty poor back in those days … they lived in the Tablelands. They told stories of having no shoes in the middle of winter and going to school and not being able to speak a word of English,”
Mr Cusack said.
“During that period of time, they entered World War II. Because the Italians were against the Allies, his father was put in an internment camp down south. His mother looked after him solely – they had very little money.
“Then his mother died of a heart disease … they were given to foster care for a little while until his father was let out.”
Mr Giudice, dissatisfied with schooling due to his struggles with the English language, elected to leave school about 11 years of age and instead took up labouring jobs with Tablelands farmers.
When he was 18, he met Shirley St John, his future wife.
“She was from a white Australian family, so the marriage wasn’t sanctioned by her parents. But they got married anyway,” Mr Cusack said.
“That’s when he got a small loan from her uncle to buy some cattle. He taught himself the trade of being a butcher. That’s how they started building their money together from nothing.
“He had the Babinda butcher shop for a really long time … he fattened and slaughtered the cattle himself … he would supply all the meat to the cane cutters.”
Mr Giudice then purchased a butcher shop in Gordonvale, further building his family’s wealth until he and his wife eventually purchased several pubs, including
the Babinda Hotel, and obtained a freehold lease on the historic Cairns Central Hotel from 1967 until 1987. But he never stopped running cattle on his beloved property.
“Even when he retired in his 50s, he continued to work on the farm. He never stopped,” Mr Cusack said.
“He loved that land. I still remember him saying to me when I was a little boy: ‘you need the land, because they’ll never make more of it’.”
As well as business and community clubs, Mr Giudice was heavily involved with the horse racing scene – first locally, then domestically.
“He had about 30 different race horses … TJ Smith, Gai Waterhouse’s dad, was a really good mate of his.”
Warren Massingham, a Cairns Jockey Club committee member, said Mr Giudice would be found at any race meeting from Cairns to Innisfail, ensuring he was the first at the track to nab a seat nearest to the TAB.
“They would just love to watch and have a bet,” Mr Massingham said.
“He was a mad racing man. There wouldn’t have been a Cairns Cup meeting in past 20 years he hasn’t been to.”
Mr Giudice leaves behind four children, nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Mr Giudice’s family invite the public to attend his funeral, which will be at Black’s Funerals in Innisfail from 10am on Wednesday, November 9.