Desmond Libke’s second Great Grandfather, Ludwig Carl Lubke arrived in Queensland in 1872 aboard the “Reichstag”.
The family eventually settled in the Mt French region.
Des’s parents Alfred (Snow) Libke and Grace Venz met in Boonah.
Des was born in Gayndah in 1935 when his parents were up that way clearing brigalow scrub and planting cotton.
They lived in tents for seven years but the cotton beetle ruined the crops and all that hard work was for nothing.
After this the family moved around managing other people’s properties until Snow ended up at the softwood Mill at Jimna.
At this time Des had one younger brother named Barry and a sister, Pam, was born in Beaudesert. In 1938 another brother, Robert, was born in Canungra Hospital but he sadly passed away while still a tiny baby.
They then moved to Cedar Creek to a Mill and had a shack with a tin roof, no lining but it was the first house Des had ever lived in. During WW2 the American soldiers would cool their Coca Cola in the creek so the kids would go and look for the pieces of string along the creek and pull in a Coke. When they were caught one of the Americans dropped an old penny into a glass of coke and said, “This is what will happen to your stomach if you drink coke.” The glass fizzed up and he pulled out a shiny penny. Des said, “I didn’t drink Coke for years after that.”
Later the family moved up to Mount Tamborine where his father worked with Stan Barlow building homes. One of the neighbours was the author May Gibbs famous for her gumnut stories. During the war the Aussie soldiers would come up to the house during storms and Des mum Grace would feed them up as they often lacked provisions.
Des began attending the Tamborine North School at aged 7 and he remembers Miss Burgess as one of his teachers. While still at school Des had to work to help support the family but at 12 he left to work on a small crop farm. Des dad had tried to join the Army but with a German name found this impossible.
On 20 October 1944 an item titled “Fall from Tree” appeared in the Beaudesert Times. During the war the Filipino paratroppers would train at Biddiddaba near the Collins homestead where Des would sit up at the dairy and watch them. One afternoon Des decided to climb up a tree playing paratroopers and fell and broke his arm.
When locals needed to go shopping they went to Beaudesert to Enrights store and one time when he was very young, the family had gone to the doctors in Beaudesert. On their return they passed the Mundoolun bridge when an American spotter plane suffered engine trouble and attempted a landing in a lucerne paddock where his landing gear got caught up and the plane went over. When Des’s dad and Henry Bishop went over Des reports that the language the pilot used was terrible when he found himself upside down in the paddock. The pilot gave Des a piece of Perspex from the windscreen which Des treasured for years
At 13 Des came down the mountain to work on a farm near Canungra, one weekend off a month. After a year, the neighbour, old Mr Jesse Daniels noticed Des minding the cattle with no shoes on his feet and suggested he ask his employers to buy him a pair of boots or get some money off them. Des had assumed his employers were sending his wages up the mountain to his family but soon found out he hadn’t been paid at all so he walked off the job.
Old Mr Daniels was opening up a new dairy so his parents suggested he ask for a position there. His mum, her baby Tina and Des walked from Eagle Heights, down the mountain through the scrub to see him. Mr Daniels couldn’t believe they’d walked all that way and so drove them home in his Oldsmobile. When he saw the shack they’d been living in, cold and wet, he packed the whole family up and gave them accommodation on his property down in the valley where Des began work.
At 16 Des met Joyce Curtis and Des took her to dances in his father’s car. Joyce had made up her mind that Des was the one for her despite her mother’s misgivings. Des suggested she’d be better off marrying one of the locals with land and money. But Joyce said, “I’m marrying a bloke and that bloke is You!” In the fifties the community used to come together with tennis and square dancing and, as a youngster, Des spent a lot of time picking beans to buy a racquet, which he still has at home.
He decided to join the Army when he was 18 so he and Joyce decided to get married when he returned in two years. Des joined 2 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment attached to the Far East Land Forces and served in Malaysia where he always carried Joyce’s photo with him. Within three months of his return they were married at the Uniting Church in Canungra. After leaving the Army he joined the Police Force in Brisbane and the young couple bought a house which he paid off quickly by working a 2nd job on the trams.
After leaving the Police, Des worked with Hunter Brothers, a waste disposal company and then with the Brisbane Council dealing with hazardous waste.
Des retired at 61 and he and Joyce came back to Canungra to help on the Curtis family property. In 1983 Joyce and Des bought a block of land in Canungra and built a home where they put in so many trees the house now sits in a forest.
Des and Joyce had four children, Karen, Angela, Ryan, and Brian who all have gone and had successful lives.
Sadly Joyce passed away in September2023 after a very active public-spirited life with the Wonglepong CWA, as Patron of the Canungra Show Society and a founding member of the Canungra and Districts Historical Association.
These days Des like to keep active and regularly attends the gym. He often visits us and we are lucky to have him to turn to with our questions.
We are proud to announce that has agreed to become the Patron of the Canungra and District Historical Association.
