The Gatton, Lockyer and Brisbane Valley STAR, Wednesday, December 5, 2007 ~ Page 14 EULOGY ~ MATTHEW JENDRA Matthew Jendra, 87 Locals mourn the passing of an icon MATTHEW Jendra was a local icon, an icon well known in the farming community and a person who was well respected and liked for his well natured character, positive disposition on life and work ethic. Matt Jendra was born 87 years ago on May 13, 1920. He was the fourth of five children to Annie and Francis Jendrachowski. He was a great cricketer and tennis player in the Tarampa district in his teens and into his 20’s. Matt was an ideas man, who always had ideas about how things could be done better, and he was very active in trying to get those ideas put into action. More often than not, his persuasive manner meant that he succeeded. He worked tirelessly for the Queensland Dairyman’s Organization and held office for 25 years, always trying to get a better deal for farmers. Matt lobbied the Main Roads Dept to get school bus routes changed to benefit children in his area. He dreamed of a Rural Water Scheme to bring town water to farmers. He lobbied Governments and the local Council to get a feed lot and abattoir built in the Coominya district, he was successful and it provided much needed employment for the area. He wrote letters to the editor of the Gatton Star for over 30 years, some letters rattled the chain of politicians, others were designed to have people question their social conscience, while others were to gather support for an upcoming meeting he was planning. At the age of 82, he went out every day for 2 weeks and gathered 600 signatures on a petition to get a dangerous intersection upgraded and it was. Matt continually harassed the Esk Shire Council to get roads fixed or bridges widened so he could get his grain harvester across them. Matt’s life as farmer was hot and dusty and more often than not his hard work involved getting up before dawn to milk cows, cut firewood, fix fences, cut cattle feed, plough fields or go harvesting until it was time to milk again at four in the afternoon. In 1974 after the floods, he took brooms, shovels and mops to Ipswich for many days to help with the cleanup. He did 14 hour days, 7 days a week for 75 years and he didn’t get penalty rates. Even if we went out as a family on a Sunday, we had to be home by 4 o’clock to milk the cows. Matt’s ideas and hard work weren’t his only defining qualities. He was a tower of strength to those affected by the shooting on Boxing Day, 1961 when his wife, his brother and 2 other farmers were shot. Matt met his wife, Mary in Ipswich at a dance in 1948. They got married the following year and set up house in an old weatherboard home on the property. The name Jendra was shortened from Jendrachowski by deed poll before getting married in 1949. Mary was wife, mother, milk maid, tomato picker, secretary book keeper, cook, typist, child minder, finance manager, telephone operator, tractor and truck driver, sounding board and street navigator for all those years. Together Matt and Mary raised 4 children - Peter, Rosemary, Greg and Bruce. Matt and Mary have also been blessed with 8 granddaughters and one grandson, and have begun to welcome the next generation with 3 great-grandchildren and a couple more on the way. Peter, eldest son of Matt said he will remember his father for “all the good things he did without expecting anything in return, except for the satisfaction he gained by helping others. Esk Shire Council are currently organizing a memorial garden to be held in Matt Jendra’s honour in recognition of his contribution to the district. 3 photo’s as well by Melanie Maeseele. .................................................................................................................. The Courier Mail - Brisbane - Wednesday December 27, 1961. LOWOOD HORROR - 2 SLAIN, 2 HURT IN RIFLE RAMPAGE Youth charged with murders. Two people were murdered and two others severely injured in an afternoon of horror at Tarampa, near Lowood, yesterday. The dead and injured were shot with a .22 rifle, and when police converged on the area they found a trail of dead animals over a five-mile stretch of isolated farming country. Last night a 17-year--old youth, a former Westbrook inmate, had been taken into custody, after armed police had searched through bush and farms at Tarampa. It was an afternoon of terror and confusion for the usually peaceful settlement of Tarampa, 47 miles west of Brisbane, The dead couple were: Albert Freese, 58, and his wife Hannah Annie Freese, 58. both were shot in their home. Their bodies fell down a short flight of steps to a downstairs laundry. The injured are: Mary Jendra, 32, and her brother-in-law, Francis Andrew Jendrachowski, 44. Mrs Jendra was shot in the left groin a few yards from the rear entrance of her home. Jendrachowski was shot through the left side of the abdomen in a paddock near his home. Both were rushed to Ipswich Hospital and last night underwent operations. Their condition early today was reported as satisfactory. When police from Lowood, Ipswich and Marburg converged on Tarampa, they began a search for a youth reported to be rampaging through the countryside with a .22 rifle. During their search they came aross a dead cockatoo in a cage, two dead cows, a dead pig, and a dead pet wallaby. Each had been shot. First news of the shootings reached Sergeant Ivor Scheiwe a Lowood at 3 p.m. He received a call from Matthew Jendra to say his wife had been shot. Sergeant Scheiwe raced five miles to the Jendra farm house. While he was there constable Eugene Boyle, of Lowood, returned to the station from a patrol and received a calll from another farm house to say Francis Jendrachowski had been shot. The Jendrachowski farm is only about a quarter of a mile from the Jendra farm. When Mrs. Jendra was shot she was standing only 2 ft away from her nine-year-old son, Peter. Her husband, Matthew Jendra was looking out a window at the time, and saw his wife fall. When Sergeant Scheiwe arrived he was told that nobody had seen where the shots came from. Sergeant Scheiwe drove out on to the road in front of the farm and met Constable Boyle. Constable Boyle told him Jendrachowski had also been shot. The two police telephoned Ipswich for assistance, and then, both unarmed, began a search through the farming area. They were told that Jendrachowski had been approached by a youth carrying a rifle as he drove his tractor in his paddock. the youth threatened him and then shot him as he walked away from his tractor, they were told. Jendrachowski fell down, got up, staggered towards his home and then fell down again in long grass. He began waving his arms and calling out, and was seen by his son, who ran 200yds, to his aid, and helped him into the house. Sergeant Scheiwe and Constable Boyle were told that a youth with close-cropped hair, very suntanned, and wearing only ragged khaki shorts, had been seen to run towards a patch of scrub. Although unarmed, the sergeant made a thorough search of the thick scrub. Sergeant Scheiwe then walked to the Freese farmhouse and spoke to Ray Freese, 30, son of the murdered couple, who was working in a field about 300yds, from the home. Ray Freese told him he had not seen a youth or anyone armed with a rifle. But a few minutes later, after the sergeant had left to continue the search in another area. Ray Freese went into his home and found the bodies of his parents. Mrs. Freese was shot through the head and her husband through the left chest. Ray Freese ran 300 yards to another farm to telephone police. At this time, about 3:30 p.m. Detectives Alan Watson and Earle Little of Ipswich and Sergeant W Blankensee of Marburg arrived with firearms. While the four police continued the search a youth walked up to farmer Sidney Qualischefski who was rounding up cows in a paddock about three miles from the Freese farm. Qualischefski said: "He just told me he had murdered two people and had wounded two others. He asked me to drive him to the police at Ipwich saying he did not want to run because if he did he would get a bullet in the back from the police. I did not believe him, but he told me it was true. We went up to the house and my uncle telephoned Ipswich police. I put him in my car and drove towards Ipswich and met the police car at Brassall." At 6 o'clock last night Ipswich police arrived at the Freese farm with a youth. They took him into the house, where the bodies of the Freese couple were lying, and then took him to other farms. Reconstructing the shootings last night, police said this was the series of events. ~ About 2:45 p.m. a single shot .22 rifle was stolen from the farm of Mr. V. Steinhardt, near the Jendra farm. Two cows and a cockatoo were shot at this farm. ~ 3 p.m. - Mrs. Jendra was shot ~ 3:15 - Jendrachowski was shot. ~ 3:30, the Freese couple were murdered. ~ About 4 p.m. a pig and pet wallaby were shot at the farm of Mr. Lance Waldon, who was absent with his family at the time. ~ At 4:30 - a youth gave himself up at the Qualischefski farm. Police took possession of a rife with a broken stock they found near the dead animals at the Waldon farm. They said they had been told that Albert Freese had been killed while standing inside his home, by a single shot fired from outside. His body had tumbled down a short flight of inside stairs into a dowsnstairs laundry. Mrs. Freese had run to her husband's aid and while bending over the body, had been shot from inside the house at a range of only a few feet. Police recovered two empty .22 cartridge cases - one on the steps of the home and one near the bodies. Last night neighbouring farmers flocked to the Freese home to milk cows and attend stock. At 11:15 last night police at Ipwich charged a 17-year -old youth on two counts of wilful murder. He will appear in Ipswich Poice Court at 10 a.m. today. Francis Jendrachowski died some days later in hospital from his injuries. .......................................................... JENDRACHOWSKI, Francis A. , d. 01.01.1962, 47 yrs, my husb. & our fa., MI, Lowood R.C. ...................................................... Albert Ferdinand Freese b. 21 Sep 1903, Q'land., d. 26 Dec 1961, Murdered +Anna Emilie Buhse b. 22 Aug 1903, Q'land., m. 16 May 1928, Q'land., d. 26 Dec 1961, (Zion Lutheran Cemetery, Minden, Q'land.), par. 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