Many present to farewell Des Obituary

Desmond Ambrose Hebb 1940 - 2023

PEOPLE from near and far were in Collie yesterday to farewell Des Hebb.

Des was born in Bunbury in 1940, one of six children of Mary and Edward (Ted) Hebb.

Ted Hebb owned and operated jarrah timber mills, at Bowelling and Noggerup.

Des often spoke of his childhood in Bowelling, of the good people, timber huts and houses, the stationmaster’s house and the railway dam.

The bush was his playground, alive with wildlife – wedge tail eagles, chicken hawks, horses, kangaroos and rabbits for the table.

Des first went to school in Donnybrook, boarding with nuns from the Catholic Church, before going on to school in Collie after his family moved to the town.

He was an outstanding athlete, excelling at school sports, so good in fact that Aquinas College gave him a scholarship. He did well at Aquinas but a bout of pneumonia forced him to return home.

The Hebbs’ house was in Robert Street, near the recreation ground.

By choice, Des left school early to work in the family mill at Noggerup, getting up with the chooks to travel to work with Len McCamish.

Coming home, Len often had a halfway house to call into, much to the annoyance of Des.

He quickly learnt mill work, graduating to the twin saws. Business was profitable and the Hebb family bought a large tract of land, cleared and uncleared, to farm, just above Bucks on the far side of the Collie River and Muja flats.

Passage to town (Collie) was often cut off during winter when the Collie River was in flood.

Life on the farm was good, with lots of hard work, but there was also marron in the dams, mushrooms, boronia swamps and horses that could trot.

Des married Halina (nee Banaszkiewicz), who was a relief school teacher during the farming years. They were married for 55 years and had two children, Sharyn and Jodie, and went on to become proud grandparents.

Moving on from the farm, Des worked at Muja Power Station until he retired.

There was not much Des did not know about trotting – breeding, drivers, form and costs.

Des was also a good runner, winning the 1966 Collie Gift, a foot race held over a distance of 120 yards. The win earned him a start in a novelty foot race against a trotter, Patricia Maud, at the Collie trots.

He got the jump on the horse and led for some 70 metres before, in his own words, “it was all over”. Des loved tennis, cricket, football and golf. He played full back for the Collie Football Club and was a good high mark, reliable kick and was said to have had the biggest hands in South West football.

He was also a handy golfer, winning quite a few competitions. He held an honest handicap, always enjoying fellowship and a beer after a game.

Early on, the Hebbs went water skiing at Glen Mervyn Dam. Good numbers were turning up, however there was no dunny. Des went on to build the first Glen Mervyn Dam dunny.

Des was a good Lion – an active member of many years of the Lions Club of Collie.

In recent years, he was a member of Probus, an offshoot of Rotary.

Des and Halina enjoyed overseas travel, frequent golf tours were undertaken, travelling companions included their doctor and the managing editor of the local paper.

Golf was only part of the reason for many trips to Cambodia where he and Halina - plus anyone else they could rope in - visited villages to pass on clothes and other household goods for which fund raising had taken place back in Collie.

- The Dancer