Eighth child of Charles and Everelda Hissey
Born 05-10-1902 Barossa, South Australia
Christened 23-11-1902 Saint Michael's All Angels, Barossa
Married 06-10-1945 to JOYCE GILMOUR MALLABY at Maitland N.S.W.
Died 05-09-1998 at Toronto, Newcastle N.S.W.

Aged 95 one month short of his 96th birthday. 
  05/10/1902 to 05/09/1998

 

 please click the pictures below to see enlargement

FREDERICK NORMAN HISSEY was born at Gawler, South Australia on 05 October 1902, Eighth child of Charles and Everelda Hissey, and Christened on 23-11-1902 at Saint Michael's All Angels Church, Barossa. The family lived on the family property at Sandy Creek, 6 miles north of Gawler, until Fred was 3 years old.

In 1905, after his father sold the farm at Gawler, the family of Charles Hissey moved to the undulating hills of Koppio in the District of Stokes, 14 miles west of Tumby Bay, 30 miles north of Port Lincoln, where he bought land to farm. A daily walk of over 3 miles to and from school at Stokes was made until Fred reached the age of 13yrs and he left school to take his place on the farm.

 

The family had their own blacksmiths shop where he learned the art blacksmithing, horse shoeing and colt breaking in addition to other farm work. Fred would also do colt breaking for other people, and got paid £3 (pounds) for breaking in 3 year olds to saddle, or £2 (pounds) to saddle and harness. At fifteen, Fred dug his first well, which is still on the farm today.

 

 

At sixteen, he learned to shear sheep with hand held blades, and as well as their own sheep, Fred would shear the sheep of other farmers in the district. When the mechanical shearing plants came in, he bought his own two stand portable plant. Working between August and October, while the bigger stations sheep were easier to shear and you could get through more in a day with higher pay, Fred felt he had to stick to the smaller farms, as they needed more help. 

 

 

In the off season, he would go onto the farms to repair/overhaul the machinery, trucks, tractors or cars for the farmers or they would sometimes bring their breakdowns to him to work on at his place. Fred would also truck the farmer's produce down to the wharf at Tumby Bay, where he kept a little boat to go out fishing during a spare moment. Fred was a very keen dancer, and could always be seen at the local dances whirling pretty young ladies around the floor.

 

 

In 1923 Fred moved to Cowell, 100 miles north of Port Lincoln, where he carried on sharefarming and shearing. He also started a business carting wheat, wool, stock and anything else that had to be moved, operating from Mangalo, Cowell and districts to Whyalla and down to Port Lincoln.

 

 

In July 1940, Fred joined the army,enlisting in No7 platoon Company, 27th Battalion, spending a few weeks at the Adeliade Show Ground then after training at Woodside, S.A., was sent by train to Melbourne where he, with many others, boarded the troop ship 'Mauritania' which, along with the 'Aquitania' and 'Queen Mary', took them to Fremantle in Western Australia.

 

 

Soon they were on their way to Bombay in India, where they disembarked. From there they went by train to a Tommy (English) camp at Delalie for a week, then they returned to Bombay to board a smaller troop ships to journey through the Suez canal to Cantara, then by train to Palestine, where he joined the No2 Recovery Section, 1st Army Field Workshops. Fred went on guard duty one night with his neck all swollen up, the next morning off to Gaza Hospital, where he spent Christmas 1940, suffering from the mumps.

Gaza Hospital Ward 17

Gaza Hospital Xmas Supper

On returning to duty, an officer came to him seeking mechanics to go to Tobruk. Being a driver/mechanic with the 2nd/27th Battalion Headquarters, he was among the chosen. Leaving Palestine with a convoy of trucks, they crossed the Sinei desert to arrive at Tobruk about midnight during an air raid, so they had to wait until morning to enter the city. A few days later, the number 2 recovery section was moved up to Bengahsi.

Where's the Donkey?

 

 

 

One Thursday morning an officer asked Fred to recover a Chev ute & a 30cwt. truck which had been shot up out near the 829k post. Grabing three mates and taking a tray top truck and a breakdown crane, they set off for Tripoli, arriving at the said 829k post about sundown the next day only to find no vehicle whatsoever! Going to a nearby Tommy camp to stay the night, they found the ute near the cookhouse, being used as a pantry. As it had a canopy it was a good place to store food. Fred was going to leave it there for their use, but the Tommies would not agree to it, so on the Saturday, the ute was loaded onto the tray top and off they went, arriving back at Bengahsi on Sunday afternoon.

Two days later, on the Tuesday, they were told to get out because the Germans were about to make an all out assault. Everything that would go was towing something else, but two sheds, one full of tyres and the other full of Italian machine guns minus breech locks, were set on fire. The Italian machine guns they had brought back from Bengahsi, where they had lived in the Italian Officers quarters.

 

 

Fred returned to Tobruk the next Saturday with a load of Chevrolet & Ford engines, told to unload & return to Derna. After getting the canteen to open so they could buy some food, they set off. On reaching a check point, the English soldier on duty refused them permission to continue because the Italian truck they were driving was not registered for them to drive! Back they had to go and find the Major to get the appropriate ticket. By that time, the rest of their party had gone, so they drove through the night, there were burning vehicles on the roadside and Fred realized that if they had not gone back for the ticket, they would have been caught in that raid.

 

 

Back at Derna on the Sunday morning, they pulled out a truck load of electrical equipment and sent it back to Tobruk that night. After tea, an officer came to them and told them if they could not get out early next morning, they were to wait until after midday, because he, the officer, had to have his lunch! The next morning they left Derna to go to Tobruk and found that same officer directing the traffic though the pass.

They tried to persuade him to go with them, but he refused. They waited for him at the top of the pass for a while, but as the shells were getting too close for comfort, they took off at top speed for Tobruk. As they reached the town, the road was closed behind them and so began the siege of Tobruk and Fred became one of the 'Rats of Tobruk'

 

 

One Sunday morning, Fred watched as a hospital ship came into the harbour, when about seventy planes went over and dropped bombs all around her with not one hit! She was the last hospital ship to enter the harbour, the rest were either cruisers or destroyers which had come to take them out. Fred left on one of the cruisers. First they went to Alexandria, then on to Palestine and finally to the base workshops at Tel Elkabir. While there, they were able to go into either Cairo, Port Said or Ishmalia on Sundays. The Christmas of 1941 was celebrated in Cantara.

No wind - pulling his feluca down the Nile

Melons floating down the Nile on a feluca

with maize growing on banks 

Feeding the Giraffes at Cairo Zoo

 Back in Australia in 1942 and in camp at Rutherford, near the NSW town of Maitland, to work in the new workshops. While stationed here, Fred went into a pharmacy in Maitland and met a young lady chemist, Joyce, and was able to take up his love of dancing again at the local dances organised in the Town Hall for the troops.

 

At the workshops, Fred assembled some 2,000 'BSA' and 'Indian' motor bikes. He would do the final tuning on the floor, and his mate would have the fun of road testing. Finishing the bikes, he then went on to reconditioning, final testing and tuning of Chevrolet and Ford engines. Having done the tank school at Puckapunyal, he then began to dismantle tanks (of the army variety).

 

 

One day Fred was cutting rivets out with a pneunatic chisel when an officer came along to have a look. Fred had put the gun down to do something and the officer picked up the gun to have a look at it and he pulled the trigger.The chisel went up through the roof and said goodbye!

Whenl the Rutherford workshops were closed Fred was posted to Bandiana in Victoria, where he was on guard duty the night the war ended.He immediately applied for leave and made a beeline for a certain chemist shop in Maitland. Two days later he received a call to return to Bandiana as his brother in Whyalla, S.A. had been seriously injured in an accident on Armistice night and could Fred go home and run the trucking business for a while, which he did.

 

Discharged from the army in September, Fred went back to Maitland N.S.W. early in October, and on 06 October 1945 married his lady chemist, JOYCE GILMOUR MALLABY. 

Fred and Joyce returned to Cowell and ran the Hissey Trucking business, carting hay and chaff to Whyalla for the dairy and other places. Joyce caused quite a stir in Cowell, being the first lady to wear shorts down the street!

 

One day the man at the dairy said that they would not want any more hay as they were going to grow enough lucern to feed the stock. Fred said to him there are two points: "1, you can't grow enough lucern here at Whyalla to feed your stock", and "2, you cannot feed milking cows on all lucen". It wasn't many weeks before Fred got a phone call to bring hay. The cows had dropped back to about half milk. They told Fred that as soon as the cows saw his semi coming up the drive with hay, they gave more milk. After running the business for a year, it was sold.

 

Fred and Joyce then moved to Yankalilla, forty five miles south of Adelaide on the beautiful Floriade Peninsuler, and bought a double block of land, where they initially lived in a caravan. Thier plan was to build a house on one block, and a Pharmacy business on the adjoining block.

 

 

Straight after the war, materials were very limited, so Fred built a saw plant, powered by a 12hp Ford Prefect motor, and the circular saw blade was six feet in front of the motor. He went onto the farms in the Yankallila area, felled trees and milled the timber where, when and whatever size the farmer required. He became known as "The bloody wizard with a saw". People in the district that had been millers all their lives said they had never seen anything like it!

Fred had a number of agencies, and across the front of his ute he added a 30 foot boom spray and would spray weeds in crops etc. as well.

 

 

As they became established, Fred and Joyce built there own home, Fred cutting trees and making all the timber bearers, joists and frames. Bricks were in limited supply, so after buying enough for the face of the house, they then made all the remaining bricks required. It was quite a sight, Fred up on the top of the walls, with Joyce climbing a ladder, bricks stacked on her shoulder, in her shorts.

The plan was to build a Pharmacy on the adjacent block, but because they were not able to receive permission at that time, in 1948, Joyce opened her Pharmacy in the lounge room in the front of the house. Joyce was the first woman to open a pharmacy in South Australia. When Joyce travelled up to Adelaide and visited the drug wharehouse, she was told they would not supply her because she was a woman; they wanted a man to be in charge. Totally undaunted, Joyce contacted the drug companies in Sydney, and shipped everything over.

 

 

The pharmacy was quite a boon to the families of theYankallila area, many cold wet winter nights, Fred would deliver medicines to outlying farms that were unable to get into town. While carrying on their businesses, Fred and Joyce also started a family, having 2 boys and a girl, who would play happily in the back yard while mum was in the pharmacy and dad out on the farms. The only concern was eldest son Ian, who like his father didn't like to be "caged in", so from 3yrs on would often burrow under the gate or fence and go exploring.

After eight years in Yankalilla, in 1954 Fred and Joyce sold their house to the church for use as a mance, and moved back to Newcastle, N.S.W. Here Fred ran a mixed business and Joyce again owned her own Pharmacy. Another 8 years went by and in 1963 Fred sold the mixed business assisted Joyce in the Pharmacy.

 

 

In 1974 Joyce and Fred retired to "Mouraby" the holiday house built by Joyce's father, at Cary Bay, Toronto, on the banks of Joyce's beloved Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, N.S.W. Fred was always tinkering and renovating. As well, Fred and Joyce belonged to many organisations, including ARPA (Australian Retired Persons Association), and this picture shows one of the many fund raising activities they undertook for these oraganisations including  ARPA, Red Cross, BPW, View Club, Legacy.

 

 

As a 'Jack of all trades', Fred led a very busy and diverse life. He hated to be idle, so he took on the task of Secretary of the Newcastle sub branch of 'The Rats of Tobruk'. A position he held for over twenty years and, just so he wouldn't get bored between meetings etc., he also delivered 'Meals on Wheels' for many years.

 

 
Duty still calls for Rat of Tobruk

 

Fred's an old hand at delivery, once a month he delivers meals on wheels to the less spritely elderly around Toronto.

By LOUISE FRASER, Lake Macquarie Reporter

Mr Fred Hissey, an 88-year-old Cary Bay resident and former Rat of Tobruk, looks forward to his regular contact with Toronto Meals On Wheels.

The spritely octogenarian has been registered with Toronto meals On Wheels for about six years, not as a meal, recipient but as a delivery volunteer.

Once a mouth Mr Hissey drives about 20km around the Toronto, Blackalls Park and Fennell Bay area delivering a three-course meal to people who are generally considered 'aged'.

In his six years with Meals on Wheels, there have only ever been one or two meal recipients, including an 89-year-old woman, older than himself.

This irony isn't lost on Mr Hissey but he doesn't like to dwell on the fact that others may not be as healthy as he is, whatever their age.

"I don't really take any notice of how old they are," Mr Hissey said.

"They are all sorts of ages. They have to be put on the list by a doctor and he takes them off."

"We have one lady who's 89 but most of them aren't that old. They'd generally be in their 70s".

Previously there had been up to 28 meal recipients on Toronto's list but numbers fell as people died or went into hospital, and since Christmas about 19 people have been on the regular meal delivery list.

As well as enjoying meeting people, Mr Hissey said he liked working for Meals On Wheels as a community service.

"I get a lot of pleasure out of helping people," he said.

"Volunteers don't get anything out of it monetarily"

Fifty years ago during World War II Mr Hissey was a member of the 2/1st Field Workshop in North Africa, during the seige of Tobruk.

His work there involved the recovery and repair of vehicles but his skills in motor mechanics have not been required to make running repairs while on the road for Meals on Wheels.

 

 

Fred died 05 September 1998 at Toronto, aged 95, one month short of his 96th birthday.