Tributes flow for Bundaberg legend Harvey Dingle

Champion woodchopper, cane farmer, grazier and scion of one of regional Qld’s most influential families, Harvey Dingle was a survivor from a bygone era.

Bundaberg has lost one of the region’s most colourful survivors from a bygone era with the passing of champion woodchopper and cattle grazier Harvey Dingle.

Champion woodchopper, cane farmer, cattle grazier and scion of one of Bundaberg’s most influential families, the region is mourning the loss of one of its great characters with the passing of Harvey Dingle on November 16 at the age of 79.

Throughout his long and active life Harvey touched the lives of many, often through his quick wit and talent for making people laugh.

With a quick wit and talent for making people laugh, Harvey brightened the lives of many throughout the region.

Speaking on behalf of the Dingle family, Harvey’s daughter, Leanne Webster, remembered the following of her father’s favourite sayings that are fit to print:

“How are you going, gettin’ any?”

“How you wheelie bin?”

“Watch the ball, move your feet.”

“Don’t let your Dingle dangle in the dirt.”

But Leanne said the most poignant and oft-repeated of her father’s phrases was “no-one ever died of hard work, they only died of sitting around thinking about it”.

“He was a joker, he really was, but a hard worker,” she said.

“If you were with Dad, you knew what hard work was, because that’s all he knew.”

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One of eight children born on the family’s Mt Perry farm, Harvey started working in the agricultural trades of a bygone era, including running his own ring-barking gang and cutting sugar cane by hand for nine seasons.

Hervey Dingle is survived by his wife Jenny and four children Paula, Leanne, Jamie and Gaelene.

“That was no mean feat for a young lad,” Leanne said.

Harvey met his wife, Jenny, at a Biggenden woodchop event in 1963, and they married in a Coalstoun Lakes church two years later.

Ever the larrikin, he stuck the words ‘The” and “End” to the soles of his shoes, seen by everyone except Jenny and the minister when he knelt down at the altar.

“Mum didn’t know why everyone was laughing,” Leanne said.

Harvey and Jenny went on to have four children, who they raised in Mt Perry, with Harvey grazing cattle and running his own slaughteryard and butcher shop, as well as going to “every single woodchop” event on the weekends.

Hervey and Jenny Dingle celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary in 2023.

In 1980, Harvey bought a cane farm in Branyan, later diversifying into small crops and taking on many workers throughout the following 40 years.

“He employed lots and lots and lots of people, and took lots of people under his wing,” Leanne said.

“Some of the local Branyan lads would come on the holidays and on the weekend, so he was always you know good for mentoring, but in a funny Dad way.”

Harvey was Bundaberg Show Society president in 2000, and had the crowning moment of his woodchopping career when he was selected for the Australian Veterans Woodchopping team in 2002, a position he retained for the next five years.

“That was one of his proudest moments in his woodchopping career,” Leanne said.

The crowning moment of Harvey's woodchopping career was when he was selected for the Australian Veterans Woodchopping team in 2002, a position he retained for the next five years.

After his heart attack, he and Jenny moved to the Palm Lake Resort, where they became avid bowlers, winning the resort’s A-grade championships.

Sadly, Harvey’s health deteriorated over the succeeding years, needing hip replacements from a long life of hard work and eventually developing cancer which required surgery from which he lost the use of his right arm.

Testament to the resilience evidenced throughout his life, Harvey learnt how to bowl and write with his left hand after the surgery.

“That was the proof of the character he was, he never gave up,” Leanne said.

In August, Hervey had a tragic fall while bowling, which led to a sharp decline in his health, and he died in his bed at Bundaberg’s Mater Private Hospital with the whole family by his side.

“We were there supporting him and loving him right to the end,” Leanne said.

Harvey (far right) played a larger than life role in the lives of the Dingle, Penny and Webster families.

Harvey will be farewelled at a service at Branyan Gardens Crematorium on Friday, November 24, with the public invited to attend wearing a hat and colourful clothes in honour of the man most often seen wearing red.

“It’s going to be very upbeat because that’s Dad, he did things differently,” Leanne said.

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While Harvey’s loss has left a gaping hole in the family, Leanne said they “have to stay together and strong” but anticipated an emotional time ahead, due to all the tributes and testimonials that will be forthcoming from the many people whose lives intersected with her father’s.

Harvey Dingle will be farewelled at a celebration at Branyan Gardens Crematorium on Friday, November 24.

“We’ve got no idea how many lives he touched,” she said, choking back tears.

“He loved to be loved and to love.”