“I’ve always been a horse crank,” Phyllis said.
“I would ride a horse to school, a little one-teacher school. We had no other way of getting there.”
While living on a Queensland farm as a young woman, she spotted Arabian horses for sale in the newspaper classifieds her meat was wrapped in.
Phyllis saved up for one of the mares by selling her prized needlework, having once won a national craft competition promoted on the back of a packet of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.
Those were the humble beginnings of a respected six-decade career breeding Arabians, just one part of her life’s work dedicated to rural Australia.
The 89-year-old from Goomeri, west of Gympie, has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for service to her community.
Phyllis, who has served the district show society, the State Emergency Service and the RSL for decades, is a local legend.
She even has an arena at the local showground named in her honour.
Many locals also think of Phyllis when they see a 500kg pumpkin sculpture in the town’s market square.
She donated the green stone work to the community as a symbol of Goomeri’s annual Pumpkin Festival, which brings thousands of visitors to the town of 677.
A festival highlight is The Great Australian Pumpkin Roll, in which competitors push pumpkins down a steep slope known as Policeman’s Hill for a chance to win $1000.
Phyllis is a patron of the festival, an event that helps keep the town humming.
“We need to keep people stopping in town and spending a bit of money,” she said.
“It’s a lovely little town and I’m a very proud Goomerite.”
While she has served the people of Goomeri, volunteering has given Phyllis hope and purpose.
She moved to town from a cattle property at Cinnabar in 2004 after the death of her husband Alan, at first unsure where she would fit in.
So she threw herself into community work, starting with a gardening club.
“You’ve got to get yourself out and you’ve got to get among people,” Phyllis said.
She was among 320 people awarded an OAM this year.
