Tributes flow for Bundaberg community hero

THE family of Noel Searle celebrated and remembered the life of their late husband, father and grandfather after his passing last week.

(L-R) Robert Searle, Wendy Searle, Noel Searle former Queensland Governor The Honourable Penelope Wensley and Andrea Playford. Picture: Contributed

A HUSBAND, father, grandfather, great-grandfather and a community-minded man.

William "Noel” Searle has been described as a marvellous and loyal man who considered his friends as friends for life.

He was a founding member of Meals on Wheels in Bundaberg, a member of Bundaberg Lions Club since it began and received an Order of Australia Medal in 2009 for his service to the Bundaberg community.

Last week, after a 12-month battle with his health, Noel passed away and his life was celebrated yesterday as 500 of his family and friends gathered for his funeral.

Wife Wendy and daughter Andrea Playford spoke with the NewsMail about the man they adored and shared some of the memories they made.

Wendy and Noel met in 1954 on a Saturday night at the Lewis Bros "Dance Palais” and were together until the day he died.

"Everybody went there (the Dance Palais) on Saturday night and at 10 o'clock when the bar closed that's when everyone would really start dancing because the boys would come up,” she said.

"It was a wonderful marriage, I can't ever look back on any trouble, he'd back you up and I'd always back him up.

"We love our kids, we love the people they married and we love the grandkids and great-grandkids.”

Noel was a hard worker, having worked at the Fairymead Sugar Mill and later for Massey Ferguson, a cane harvester manufacturer.

Andrea said his career with the harvester company took him across the world to Cuba and the US.

"For a person born in 1933, in those days you didn't think about travelling the world,” she said.

"What he ended up doing and the people he had to meet, like world leaders, that is quite an amazing life.

"To only have an education up to Grade 9 and achieve what he did is pretty amazing and he was very community-minded as well.”

During their time in Cuba the Searles were the only Australians living in the country and Wendy said Noel had a close encounter with former Cuban communist Fidel Castro.

"At the time the sugar industry in Cuba was the biggest in the country and we were treated very well because of that,” she said.

"One day Noel was on the harvester and Fidel came to have a look at them.

"Noel didn't know he was there and he looked up and he was standing on the harvester and he thought, 'Ooh this is a good opportunity to get a picture of Fidel.'

"He was just about to get out of the harvester to go and get it and the soldiers guarded him with their rifles and guns and said don't get out so he couldn't get it.”

Wendy said in the midst of their travels Noel became a charter member for Bundaberg Lions Club, where he helped establish Meals on Wheels.

"It was the first club in Bundaberg,” she said

"He's been made a life member of the Lions Club and the Meals on Wheels Club.”

At the age of 16 Noel found a love for surf lifesaving and enjoyed the fun that went with it.

Andrea said Noel was a member of the Bundaberg lifesaving march past team that won the national title four times in a row from 1959-62.

"He used to train us at swimming club, family to him was everything,” she said.

In 2015 Noel was awarded the Community Spirit Award by then-mayor of Bundaberg Mal Foreman.

To Wendy, Noel was the perfect man.

"He was loyal, he never had an ego ever,” she said.

"He had a great sense of humour right until the end.

"We're married 62 years this year and it's very very good to think we could get there, he was the perfect man, you had it all in one.”