| Roma was born in Adelaide in 1924 and was raised in the Flinders Ranges living on sheep stations and attending the Parachilna school. Her family were pioneers of Blinman and surrounding settlements. As a teenager she moved to Adelaide where she worked at Kodak and worked for the war effort at Holdens.
After army discharge in October 1945 Bob and Roma moved to Laura. In Whyalla he worked as a shunter guard for BHP. He worked as a builder’s labourer with an interlude loading grain on the windjammer Tawhill at Port Victoria. Daughter Kathryn was born in Whyalla in November 1947.
Bob, Roma and Kathy moved to Tumby Bay sharing a house with Allan and Mavis Haines and daughter Susan. Bob and Allan worked at Wanilla for the Lands Department scrub clearing for the War Service Land Settlement. After 2 years they were allotted blocks in August 1950. Daughter Lyn was born in September 1951.
For the ensuing 20 years Bob and Roma worked tirelessly on the scrub block while living in a prefab settlement house complete with furniture Bob had made. Roma’s illness (health benefits did not exist), African daisy and lack of finances were major worries. Cropping was used mainly for hay in the early years. Illawarra short horn cattle and Merino sheep produced beef and milk and fine wool. Roma milked 20 cows selling the cream and using the milk to raise pigs and lambs. For extra income Bob butchered cattle, sheep and pigs and sold the meat within the community and Port Lincoln.
Bob planted many hundreds of trees of different varieties - both Australian and English. Fellow farmers and Stock Agents were amazed by the high standard of productivity achieved at the Schneider farm. He was known within the Lands Department as the “fate accompli” man.
The Wanilla RSL, Legacy and Wanilla Community were an important part of their lives. Bob assisted with the renovation of the RSL Hut, was treasurer for many years, coordinated the inaugural Duke of Edinburgh awards on lower Eyre Peninsula and was awarded Life Membership. He built toilet blocks at the Hut and Hall and made furniture still used today for the supper room. He was involved with Gymkhanas, Rodeos, Combined Sports days, made many props for Wanilla school concerts, secured the high school bus to Cummins Area School and was a Rural Youth adviser.
Roma was coordinator of many Wanilla RSL Dinners and received an Associate RSL Life membership. She was President of the School Committee, a founding member of the Netball Club and was renowned for her dressmaking skills and fancy dress creations. Roma’s family and friends were in awe of her capacity to live her life with steely resolve and dignity and enjoyed her sense of fun.
In August 1973 Roma passed away. The farm was sold in 1979 and Bob moved to Louth Bay to live permanently in the shack he had built in 1963. He used pines he had planted in 1950 and milled on the farm to extend and transform the shack into his home.
In retirement he pursued all of his lifelong passions. Working with wood and lathe he produced tables, bed heads, chests of drawers, bowls of every shape and size and the bar at the Community Club. He used duralumin sourced from a Messerschmitt Fighter in the Middle East to make jewellery, 21st keys and paper knives. Visitors enjoyed his hot cross buns, bread rolls and wholemeal loaves not to mention tomato sauce, relish and pickles, apricot jam and preserved fruit.– all made from his garden produce.
He was honoured to be awarded Life Membership in recognition of his contribution to the Louth Bay Community.
Bob wrote two short stories. The Battles of El Alamein and When the War was Over - an account of his AWL departure from Moratai, the harrowing journey to Darwin with Allen Haines on a faltering RAAF Liberator and the aftermath when they handed themselves to authorities in Adelaide.
In 2003 Bob moved into a small unit attached to Doug and Lyn McFarlane’s home in Port Lincoln. He dictated stories of his childhood, landing in Tarakan and the characters of the Wanilla Settlement. He was proud of the Settlement’s achievements and “the next generation of Wanilla-ites” In 2006 he moved to Matthew Flinders Nursing Home and passed away in November 2007 in his 91st year.
Kathy is married to Peter Roberts. Their family is Cassandra and Nathan Gorman, Karl, Christina and Ben Files and Christopher and Lottie Roberts – and four grandchildren – Sam, Jasmine, Rachel and Stephen .
Lyn is married to Doug McFarlane. Karen and Brad Jordison, Paula and Anthony Harris and Hamish and Stephanie McFarlane plus four grandchildren -Tascha, Fraser, Darcy and Fletcher Jordison - all live in Queensland.
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