Heartland Magazine Issue 36

Geoff Hannah “ I was born in 1948 in a house called Ventura Private Hospital, Coraki. I was adopted out as a newborn pretty much. Mum and Dad, Dave and Ruth Hannah came and adopted me, and we lived in Busby’s Flat which is inland from Casino. That’s where Mum grew up. Dad was a sleeper cutter and a girder cutter. Sleepers for railways and girders for bridges. We moved to a dairy farm at Wyrallah and then another farm at Coorabell.

When I was 13, we moved to Lismore. I’m not sure why as I never asked. It could’ve been that Dad was over dairy farming or it could have been to make it easier for me to get a job. Dad got a job at the city Engineers as a sandblaster. I went to Lismore High for 6 months, left and got a job at Brown & Jolly in town when I was only 14. Brown & Jolly were the largest country home furnishers in NSW. They serviced what they sold so if there was a washing machine for sale, they had a washing machine mechanic, a TV, they had a TV repairman. If they sold furniture, we repaired it and we also built furniture. Curtains, upholstery, French polishers, they had it all. I had to go to Tafe… Well Tech it was called back then, to do Carpentry which had nothing to do with what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to be there. The teachers were great, but I didn’t want to be there. I ended up just building furniture.

I didn’t know I was adopted until I was 17. I was looking through a green tin for receipts we always had at home. I unfolded a piece of paper and it was my original birth certificate. I was born Stuart Geoffrey Grainger. My birth mother was Margaret Rennie Quickshank Stuart. She married an Athol Grainger who got shot down in the 2nd world war. When she came to Australia from Scotland where her husband’s family was, she had me, but she adopted me out. My birth certificate had Stuart Geoffrey Grainger to be known as Geoffrey Stuart. Mum and Dad never changed it when they adopted me. I was known as Geoffrey Stuart Hannah.

I did get a shock when I found that bit of paper. I remember the moment vividly when I found it. I looked at Mum and I said… Mum, what’s this all about? Mum said…But you’re happy aren’t you love? and ever since that day I never brought it up because I knew how bloody upset the whole show was. I could see it in her face. That one little question told a story, so I never said anything. I was never worried about finding my birth mother because I loved my parents. Mum and Dad had a son 5 years after me called Richard Henry Hannah. Dad passed away first, then my brother and then Mum was the last to pass on. They all reckoned I should have found my birth

| Heartland Magazine 28 mother.

In 1969 I married, and I tried to find my birth mother. The info came back as…your mother resided in a coastal town; your father is unknown. Then it all changed. People were able to access more information. I still wasn’t worried about it but when The Hannah Cabinet was being built, for 6 1/2 years I put it out there asking… What do you call the love of a family? What is the word for that? I thought, what is the word for someone who adopts you, who doesn’t have much and went without so much. This little family I had who loved me...What is the word for it? I asked the question everywhere, but nothing worked. I thought of The Hannah Cabinet after Mum, Dad and Richie. I thought it sounded a bit conceited but then I settled on that name because it’s not named after me. It’s named after my Mum, Dad and brother, my immediate family.

I got a job as a Cabinet Maker and did my trade with Wilbur Willis. I was his last Apprentice. When Wilbur retired, I took over before leaving in 1973 to start my own business…I think it was called Hannah’s Period Reproductions. I did a lot of restoration then started making furniture and I never stopped. I live in Jubilee St, Lismore which is why I named the new building Jubilee House. I invented the house. It’s Italian and Roman architecture mixed together.

My wife and daughter in-law started doing research when my birth certificate came back. They felt like Perry Mason. The search found a Bill (now deceased) and Gladys Grainger in South Lismore. My heart was racing, so close to home. My birth mother lived at Green Forest which is between here and Coraki. This info is in the book I wrote (available at Lismore Regional Gallery. I was too scared to call Bill, so Rhonda did it. We went to their house; I bought a cake for afternoon tea and I was pretty anxious. We were sitting on the lounge and I had a lump in my throat. I said Bill! YES!! he said loudly…he’s a bit deaf. I said I’ve come to ask you about Margaret Rennie Quickshank Stuart, well… she’s my birth mother. Deafening silence followed. Oh well… he said eventually. Do you know you have 2 brothers? I’ll be damned! He said. He phoned my brother Rennie and we met. I was hiding when Reynold came to meet me. I was so nervous. I found out there was 10 of us. Actually there’s 15 with both sides.

I was awarded the Churchill Fellowship in 1980 and I went to London and Paris. I didn’t want to do any hands on work there, I wanted to be able to take the drawers out of Louis XV’s desk or Marie Antoinette’s cabinet. I wanted to open it and look at it. That was my request and it