Family reunites to remember Neville Cecil Huxley

A LARGE gathering has come together to farewell Charters Towers man Neville Cecil Huxley who was born on March 19, 1941, in Mount Isa.

He died in Charters Towers at 12.05am on Sunday, April 11.

Neville was the firstborn child of Cecil Huxley and Ellen Bell, also known as Darcy.

He was an elder brother to Heather, Fred, Jennifer, Daniel, Patricia, Elwyn and Robyn.

Neville attended Boys Town and Richmond Hill state schools in Charters Towers, but he hated school.

Neville was illiterate but it didn’t stop him from gaining good jobs and making a career for himself. In Neville’s teenage years he was a jack of all trades. He took off from his family and scored his first job on a prawn trawler. He then went on to mustering in the Northern Territory.

He returned home and got a job on a droving camp driving cattle for days to the meatworks in Townsville and then in 1960 Neville got a job on the railway building the Hornibrook line where he made some lifetime friends.

Back home in Charters Towers, Neville gained some stock work at Hickes Paddock on Cowards Road, working alongside some Aboriginal men.

One of those men was Harry Reid, a traditional elder of the Gudjala people.

One day Harry’s niece Shirley arrived on horse and cart bringing supplies out for her uncle. Neville asked Harry who the goodlooking sort was, and replied it was his niece.

This was the day he met Shirley Davidson and fell in love.

Neville and Shirley tried to find a home to settle down after the birth of their first child and after camping in their swags under the stars on Hickes Paddock they found a block in the bush on Millchester Road.

On July 27, 1969, Neville and Shirley married.

In 2008 Neville lost the love of his life to cancer and he spent the rest of his days tethering out his horses and tinkering with his cars.

In 2017 Neville started to lose his eyesight. Neville is survived by his nine children, grandchildren, great grandchildren, and great great grandchildren and the dozens of stories that can be told by those who knew him.

Harry