A man of quiet dignity
JASON FRED
AN elder of the Warungnu people, Jason Fred has been remembered as a loving father, a highly skilled and hard worker, and a very likeable man.
Born in a traditional gunyah shelter on his people’s land on the Kirrama Range inland of Cardwell, he was also a link with an
Aboriginal way of life which has long since passed.
Jason Fred was born around May 10, 1937.
As a young boy he spoke the language of his people.
He and his brothers and sisters were put to work on the Kirrama station, now Budjubulla. At the age of five he was riding a horse, mustering cattle.
At that time the laws and traditions of the Aboriginal people were still very much in use.
Aborigines from other areas could be killed for trespassing on another’s tribal country without good reason, a tribal “Clever Man” would administer healing and many of the people from the tribe had gifts and responsibilities that made them as much a part of the country as the trees, rivers and animals.
After a few years, Jason’s parents had to move the family to Long Pocket near Ingham and soon after
Monty Atkinson of Mungalla Station near Forrest Beach took Jason on.
In 1956 Jason gained an exemption from an Act under which the state controlled the lives of Aborigines – The Aboriginals Preservation and Protection Act – but his bank account remained under the control of the director of native affairs.
Later he met a girl, Carol Cummins, who also worked at Mungalla Station and they were believed to be the first Aboriginal couple married in a church in Ingham.
They had a daughter, Susan, and spent the next 10 years working throughout North Queensland, including with Townsville transportable home builder Planet Homes.
With no more than two years of primary school education, Jason’s ability to read construction plans, where others could not, amazed his colleagues.
One of his co-workers, Charters Towers man John Stidds, said Jason could do anything from digging trenches to batching, pouring and finishing concrete and operating machinery.
“He was the company truck driver, loader driver – you name it, Jason did it well and not a complaint. He was such a likeable guy. He never had an enemy in the world,” Mr Stidds said.
The family bought a house in Heatley, one of the first Aboriginal families to do so.
On his retirement, Jason became more active with the Girringun Aboriginal Corporation in Cardwell as a member of the Warungnu people.
He was the second chairman of the Budjubulla Committee looking after what was Kirrama station and, during his tenure, co-ordinated submissions for financial grants, fencing and agistment tenders.
He organised indigenous Community Development Employment Projects, transforming Kirrama with fences, paddocks and agreements for agistments.
His son-in-law Carl Johnson said while there were many instances where an Aboriginal man could have become disillusioned and bitter in an environment of control and discrimination, Jason never spoke angrily about people or the government’s treatment of him or his family.
He preferred to concentrate on what he could control with a quiet dignity and intelligence that drew the admiration and respect of all who knew him, Mr Johnson said.
Jason passed away on May 6, aged 82.
He was loved by all his relatives but especially by his immediate family of daughter Susan, son-inlaw Carl and grandchildren Cara, Sandy and Kieren.