The Basque Man of Paluma and District.
A long-time resident of both Paluma and Hidden Valley, Manuel Larrinaga, died on 10th May 2018, aged 69 years, after 3 months of acute cancer illness.
Manuel was born a Basque, within the spanish Francoist fascist State in 1949, into a family of long-established farmers just outside Guernica in the Basque Country, the site of the 26 April 1937 infamous Hitler/ Franco atrocity during the Spanish Civil War. (The subject of Picasso’s famous painting entitled “ Guernika” of the same year – see Wikipedia).
Manuel was one of 11 children, some of whom still live on the family farm, including Luciano, his elder brother with whom he fled to Australia, as a refugee, aged 16, to escape forced conscription into Franco’s army, which was yet another attempt by the The Fascist Dictator to suppress the Basque Culture which has a feisty independent democratic tradition going back several centuries!
Franco’s death in 1975 was marked in Guernica with great joy. Manuel, who covertly returned to Guernica for the expected occasion, would often recount how free refreshments flowed like water for days in Guernica in celebration of the Fascist Dictator’s demise, such was the not – forgotten Basque revulsion over his crimes. (google “ Guernika”)
Manuel himself passionately hated Franco, accusing him of thwarting his plans to become a Vet! Instead Manuel followed a life of very hard labour in the cane fields of NQ and construction work in Mt Isa and elsewhere in NQ from age 16 until he died 53 years later.
Manuel was a member of a cane- cutting gang established by Luciano in Ingham. He had to harden up from a wanna- be Vet student and despite weeping every night for two years from the painful consequences of manual cane cutting he became a very tough man excelling in Boxing and being a renowned hard manual worker , as well as a spell as a Pub bouncer keeping order among the thirsty cane cutters. Ingham Police dubbed him “The Bullfighter” while others called him “The Basque Terrorist”, titles Manuel proudly proclaimed!
The reality was that Manuel was a bit of a “softie” when it came to helping the less- fortunate. He also had strong views about injustice .
In 1976 he worked for Simon Carves Ltd in Mt. Isa in a multi-national gang constructing the famous smelter Smoke Stack during which time he was the macho man riding the crane loads as a rigger to the top of the stack as it rose to its 270 Metre height. His stories of pranks and escapades without safety harnesses on high were blood chilling and often led to acute anxiety attacks amongst the Health & Safety ground staff.
In 1978 he met Judy, his life partner of nearly 40 years and they ultimately moved to live firstly at Hidden Valley and subsequently to the Republic of Hussey Road where Manuel constructed a large “Yurt” for Judy (a large Decagon house of stringy bark slabs cut by Manuel) which he subsequently re-erected at Hidden Valley, near the Furber Homestead, after adding two wings…it is an impressive example of Australian Bush architecture which will some day end up in a glossy coffee table book on vernacular buildings of OZ.
Indeed, Many of his structures can be seen around our District. Manuel was an artiste with a chain saw and he could perform miracles with his “Skyhook” chain block and his trusty shovel severely worn down by the digging of numerous postholes over many years! Manuel produced a number of stringy bark slab tables which are memorials to his skill and labours in the forests around Paluma- Blackfriars – Mt Zero as a timber cutter and Mill worker with Mr. R. Brookes esq. (who can forget their red hair dye period?)
Manuel’s legacy is around us for all to see…including the Andree Griffin Walking Track sign and the “Trees in Memory ” slab both voluntarily erected by him.
No story about Manuel’s life is complete without mentioning his valiant attempts to conquer the English language! He could construct alleged English sentences and adapt words so that they were but a shadow of their intended meaning but still understandable with a little prodding, poking and requests for repetition from those of us who could not understand a single word of the truly ancient Basque Language. (Please note : not Spanish!)
Indeed, it has been suggested that Manuel communicated in Basque with an Australian accent! a very endearing aspect of his personality and perfectly understandable when one considers that his English language academy was the cane paddocks of Ingham where the tutors spoke only Basque, Spanish, Italian , Sicilian , Serbian , Croat and Irish!
His persona of a tough hard- working battler remain in the memories of those who knew him, especially the super-critical working people of The Valley who were in awe of his prodigious work ethic and physical toughness.
May his memory be long respected in this District as one of those many oppressed refugees who have made a huge contribution to our present day Australian Culture .
Michael Drew
Thank you for this wonderful write up of my poppy. It’s an amazing respectful article of his life and you have done very well.