FEATURE - John Watson – a Montville Gem

Fire Warden, Montville Weather Man, Master-Montville Lodge, Sportsman, Musician, Army Officer, Chorister, Businessman.

by Doug Patterson

John was born in New Plymouth (Taranaki), New Zealand in 1943. His father died on his 14th birthday, so one of the main influences on his early life was his mother, a notable concert pianist who toured with the Australian Broadcasting Commission in the 1930s.

John completed most of his secondary education at Lindisfarne College in New Zealand's Hawke's Bay (boarding) before graduating from Wanganui Collegiate School, and their emphasis on sport became the other force in shaping his life.

Most Montvillians would know John through his role as Fire Warden for the Montville Rural Fire Brigade and his service as a ‘firey’ with that brigade. His monthly reports to the Montville Village Association (MVA) always include a rainfall/weather report and its implications for local fire risks.

He also presents a monthly report, usually delivered with dry humour, on the Montville Masonic Lodge where he has been Master from 2015 to 2018, and again from 2023 to 2024.

“I first joined the St. Andrew Kilwinning Lodge in 1968; the New Zealand lodge his Great-Grandfather was Master of in 1882,” John shared.

However, very few Montvillians would be aware of John’s rich and varied life. Private boarding schools meant plenty of sport and John achieved success in swimming, hockey, rugby and cricket, rising through colts to reach representative levels in hockey and cricket.

“I continued to play both sports in the army,” John added. He won medals for cricket in the New Zealand Masters’ Games in 1981 (gold), and 1983 and ‘85 (silver).

“I was also a proud member of the winning crew, captained by my son, Cameron, in the United Arab Emirates President's Cup Sailing Regatta in 2001,” he said with a broad smile.

When John moved to Montville in 1994, he continued to pursue his love of cricket, joining the Palmwoods Cricket Club and becoming Club President from 1996 to 2003. He also played for the Montville Village X1 in the now defunct Montville/Mapleton annual social match.

Following in his mother’s footsteps, John became an accomplished pianist and organist. 

“I have played the organ for many years at a number of Masonic Lodges in New Zealand and Queensland,” said John, “and also played the piano at a number of early MVA functions.

“However, my real musical passion was performing as a chorister.”

During his years in Melbourne, he successfully auditioned and performed in two prestigious choirs, the Tudor Choristers and the Canterbury Fellowship.

John’s early career was in the army, not with one but two armed forces; the New Zealand Army (1962 to 1978) and the Australian Army (1979 to 1986). He served in New Zealand in the Territorial Force, the Regular Force Signals Corp, Army Air Corps and Infantry from 1962 to 1978.

During this time he served in Singapore from 1972 to 1973, as part of the Australian New Zealand United Kingdom (ANZUK) Force.

“I managed in this time to marry Laura, my Australian-born wife, who was Queensland Lady Riding Champion in the summer of 1955-56,” John said with clear affection.

His Australian Army time included serving in the Royal Australian Corps of Transport, the Air Transport Support Regiment and as Staff Officer for the Movement and Transport Division of Logistic Command and later the Army Engineering and Development Establishment.

“These research and development positions helped me to hone the software development skills I had learned in my New Zealand University days. I left the army to set up with Laura an IT software development and marketing company, Impetus Software Systems Pty Ltd.”

John became Director, Research and Development, and from 1986 to 1994 developed and sold bespoke software programs internationally. However, the rise of Microsoft and the launch of its Windows software saw the company faced with a second total rewriting of its software to meet client expectations.

The company preferred to accept a lucrative buy-out offer and for John and Laura to retire yet again.

“We were then searching for the right community to move into and discovered Montville and its lack, back in 1994, of prestige tourist accommodation. We moved two old Queenslanders onto a block on Kondalilla Falls Road and proceeded to join the houses along with major renovations to create ‘The Falls’.” 

Local opposition, expecting something less attractive, subsided when ‘The Falls’ won annual premier accommodation awards from both Tourism Sunshine Coast and Queensland Tourism from 1999 to 2001.

As part of his commitment to tourism on the Range, John also served as secretary of the Blackall Range Tourism Association for seven years.

Once again, retirement didn’t last long with John securing seasonal work as locomotive driver for the Racecourse Mill in Mackay from 2008 to 2010 and Workplace Health and Safety Manager for a Moranbah Transport Contractor serving the mining industry in 2011/12. He claims some sort of record for having retired and ‘unretired’ five times.

John is undoubtedly a Montville Gem but be warned, he is an inveterate storyteller with a lot of stories to tell and once he starts ……