Wayne Bennett reveals how alcoholic father broke his heart from the age of four

Wayne Bennett had just played a game when his long lost father appeared from nowhere “full of piss”. There was only one brutal question Bennett could ask.

Wayne Bennett's dad died at 54. Bennett vowed at 12 to never drink alcohol.

When Wayne Bennett’s alcoholic father Jim drank himself to death at age 54, his female partner told Wayne and his siblings not to expect anything from his tiny estate.

“That’s OK,’’ Bennett replied. “He didn’t give us anything when he was alive. We don’t want anything now that he is dead.’’

The above anecdote, taken from Andrew Webster’s biography on Bennett, The Wolf You Feed (Pan Macmillan), spotlights the trauma and humiliation that sat heavily on Bennett’s shoulders when his father left home, never to return, when Wayne was 12.

The Wolf You Feed, released on Tuesday, claims Jim died of a massive heart attack after leaving the night shift at the Fourex Brewery.

There is a strong sense the wary, restrained demeanour that has been a lifelong Wayne Bennett trademark was shaped by the super coach’s heart-breaking yet backbone making childhood in Warwick on Queensland’s Darling Downs.

Bennett’s father was a big drinker and a gambler who had jobs in the local sawmill and railway and who did not have a drivers licence but could often be seen wobbling around town on his pushbike.

Wayne Bennett's dad died at 54. Bennett vowed at 12 to never drink alcohol.

Wayne was only six years old when his mother started sending him off to the local pub to find his father and urge him to come home for dinner. Jim would show Wayne off to fellow drinkers by plonking him on the bar.

Later in life one of Bennett’s mates told him “I have never seen anyone handle drunks better than you’’. And Bennett would say, “I’ve had to .. I’ve handling them since I was four.’’

Jim Bennett, who Wayne said did have some redeeming features, had Christmas with the family in 1961 but vanished soon after. Slowly the reality set in he was never coming home.

After Wayne started to make headlines as a rugby league fullback and winger he was surprised to hear a commotion at the door of his Brisbane Brothers dressing room where Jim, after many years of absence, suddenly appeared “full of piss.’’

When Jim declared “I’m Wayne’s dad’’, Bennett replied, “Where the f--- have you been?’’

Wayne swore off the booze for life as a 12-year-old when his mother Patsy said to him “I don’t want you to be like your father’’, and he said, “I never will mum ... that’s never going to happen.’’

Wayne Bennett's latest biography, 'The Wolf You Feed'.

According to the book, when Jim left the family, the dire financial consequences sentenced them to moving into a housing commission home on Grafton Street, Warwick, which had no electricity and was bitterly cold in winter.

With his mother working odd jobs to feed the family it was often left to Wayne to make breakfast for his siblings and get them off to school.

There was a feeling among the Bennett children that many people in Warwick looked down their nose at the Bennett’s who were struggling to make ends meet.

When his mother Patsy died, Bennett, by then an icon of Warwick due to his rugby league deeds, spoke at the funeral which packed out the local church.

“Forty years ago they would have run over my mother in the main street,’’ Bennett told the gathering. “Today, the police are stopping traffic for her.’’

The Wolf You Feed – Wayne Bennett. The Man, The Myth, The Mayhem by Andrew Webster. Macmillan Australia. RRP $36.99. Publishing 12 September 2023.

Originally published as Wayne Bennett reveals how alcoholic father broke his heart from the age of four