Gympie Show community mourns death of Robert ‘Bob’ Hensel

The death of Show stalwart and farmer Bob Hensel marks the end of an illustrious era for the Gympie region, and the loss of a unique character whose love of a good old chat was legendary.

Gympie’s Show community is mourning the death of beloved life member Bob Hensel, whose name adorns the dairy pavilion after he served 18 years as chief dairy steward.

For Gympie District Show life member Robert “Bob” Hensel, the region’s annual agriculture event was the world.

So much so that the Covid-enforced cancellation of the Show in 2020 did not stop him from attending one, albeit one with a twist.

This “Show” was built by his family in their backyard.

It included setting up a vegetable section using the ones they had grown, hanging a painting of fireworks by his grandchildren, creating a dairy section out of toy cows, home-cooked dagwood dogs and fairy floss.

His grandchildren had their own role to play, lining the driveway and pretending to be strangers as Robert rode his mobility scooter into the event, handing him his favourite - red jaffas.

It was one of a lifetime of memories shared by his son Clinton and his family following Robert’s death on June 3, at age 94.

Robert “Bob” Hensel, who together wife with wife Noreen Myrtle, was the father of five children, grandfather of 16, and great grandfather of 44. He died on June 3, 2023, aged 94.

Clinton said the homegrown Show let his dad continue his other passion in life: “He loved talking”.

“The biggest thing he liked about the Show was there were lots of people to talk too,” Clinton said.

So great was Robert’s love of a chat that one year he intentionally misnamed the Show’s information booth as “imformation”.

People would come back to correct him, and thereby guarantee him someone to talk to.

Originally from around the Dalby area, Clinton said Robert spent some time north of Cooktown before moving to the Gympie region in 1967 and starting his career as a dairy farmer.

He was “always a cow person”, Clinton said.

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The Gympie Show dairy pavilion was named after Robert “Bob” Hensel, who served as chief dairy steward for 18 years.

He married his wife Noreen Myrtle in 1956, and together they had five children: Iris, Brian, Lindsay, Clinto, and Konrad.

This expanded to 16 grandchildren, and 44 grandchildren.

The move to Gympie started his lifetime love of and commitment to the region’s Show, including serving as the chief dairy steward for 18 years.

There was one quirk in his career: he “never, ever” put his own cows on show in the competition.

“He supported the Show, ran it, was chief steward of dairy, but never actually showed,” Clinton said.

The only animals he did ever enter in a Show, Clinton said, were some ducks he owned while living at Dalby.

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Gympie Show Society president Deb Brown said Robert’s name became “synonymous” with the regional event, so much so the dairy pavilion was named after him on March 11, 2000.

Ms Brown said “he became known to many who worked on putting on our Show as our adopted grandfather”.

Robert Hensel’s love of the Show was so great his family put a Show on for him in the backyard in 2020, when the Gympie Show was cancelled as a result of Covid restrictions.

“His love of the Show was so contagious that four generations of Hensels are active participants – his son Clinton is our Patron and started the Animal Nursery that is now run by his daughters and their children (Bob’s great -grandchildren),” Ms Brown said.

“Bob always had a cheeky smile and certainly loved to play a prank or tell you a yarn … We were so pleased that he was able to attend the Show this year and we will miss him very much.”

Clinton said outside the Show, Robert loved woodworking and woodturning.

He was a “bit of a nature person” as well, looking out the window in his old age.

He would frequently tell the family which different species he saw “and we never really knew if it was correct”.

Originally published as Gympie Show community mourns death of Robert ‘Bob’ Hensel