People Australia

Family Details
Clarence (Clarry) John Melrose Trist was born in Deniliquin, New South Wales on 28 September 1896, the son of Harry and Mary Trist (née Steer). Clarry was the third-born of six brothers. A sister died in infancy. The names Clarence and Melrose were taken from the Dukes of Clarence and Melrose who were visiting Australia when he was born.

Clarry and his wife Edith (née Thorley) had two daughters, Joyce and Lorna, and two sons, John and Robert (Bob) Leslie.

Alan Trist, one of Clarry’s brothers, was the fifth-born in the family. Their mother was described as a wonderful lady and for quite some time – in later life – lived in a small flat a block away from where her grand-daughter, Joyce, and her husband, Lionel Hetherington, lived. Clarry’s mother is remembered fondly by the Trist children. She lived to within a month of turning ninety, a prodigious age. According to John she was a great helpmeet to Clarry throughout their marriage and ‘did wonders throughout the Depression years in seeing that we were all clothed and fed. She always had a willing and sympathetic ear into which we could pour our troubles. As a country girl, she had difficulty sometimes in adjusting to big city life. She loved her tennis-playing activities’.

Clarry died on New Year’s Day 1954, having been diagnosed with a brain tumour in mid-1953. A Professor Sutton, who operated on Clarry Trist, told his brother Alan and Clarry’s daughter Joyce that any further operations would only exacerbate the problem.

Education
Clarry was educated at Deniliquin Primary School then at Hay Secondary School. He achieved good scholastic results but, owing to family finances being stretched, he left school after Intermediate and took up a job in the New South Wales Forest Service as a clerk. Because of this he was later to insist that his brother Alan receive a tertiary education; which indeed came about! According to his daughter, Joyce, Clarry always regretted the fact that he didn’t have a very prolonged education.

Forestry career
Clarry joined the New South Wales Public Service on 1 March 1913 having passed the Entrance Examination. He was sent to Narrabri in the northwest of New South Wales, where he met his wife-to-be, Edith Thorley. On 1 April 1918 they got married.

The Director of the New South Wales Forest Service, the redoubtable E. H. F. Swain, thought highly of Clarry’s work and encouraged him to apply for a position in Queensland Forestry. Clarry applied for the position in the Forestry Branch of the Department of Public Lands and commenced work on 28 November 1919 as Clerk, Forestry Branch, Head Office. Records show he was selected because of his special knowledge of the activities of a Forest Service, and the aims of Forestry. His thirty-five years of duty with the Queensland Forestry Department – as it was later called – show how faithfully he lived up to these qualifications.

Clarry and Edith had moved to Brisbane with their three months-old daughter, Joyce (later married name, Hetherington). They rented a house in Dutton Park facing the tramline and some nine years later they purchased a block of land at St Lucia. According to Joyce Hetherington: ‘In those days St Lucia was a “bush” suburb where nobody wanted to live’. Clarry and Edith stayed there for the rest of their life together.

On 20 April 1921 an appeal against his appointment as Secretary of the Queensland Forest Service was disallowed and he was appointed Secretary at a salary of £280 per annum.

The year 1924 was a momentous year for Forestry under Director Swain who, in 1918, had moved to Queensland to head up the Queensland Forest Service after Jolly left. Although C.J. Trist was a relatively young man in the organisation, he would have been caught up in the appointment of a Provisional Forestry Board. The following quote from the 1923-24 Annual Report of the organisation tells the story.

The Forest Service emerges in new shape as a much-strengthened organisation for the conduct of the State’s business in forests and timber supply.

The amended constitution provides for a centralised form of management operating through three main branches, viz. (1) Harvesting and Marketing (including Sawmilling); (2) Administrative, Secretarial, and Accounts matters generally; and (3) Working Plans, Silviculture, and Surveys; the first dealing with the convenient and profitable disposal of original timber stands, the third with the organisation and production of new wood crops, and the second with the general processes of a Head Office.

The new administrative authority of the Department is a Provisional Forestry Board of three members functioning as one management with suitable delegation of particular powers to the constituent members for the effective control of the three branches.

The Provisional Forestry Board assumed office on 1st November 1924.

Swain, of course was Chairman of the Board. The other members were A. A. Staines and C. R. Paterson. The Board of three was responsible directly to the Minister for Lands. The Queensland Forest Service ceased being a branch of the Lands Department but was still a Forest Service. But it now had autonomy free of the dictatorial Lands Department. The Board was now answerable only to the Minister for Lands, not the public servants of Lands.

In 1937, the Forestry Board of the Queensland Forest Service authorised C. J. Trist to act on behalf of the Board to administer the State Forests and National Parks Regulations of 1937. The same action took place that year with regard to his authorisation to act on behalf of the Board in respect of The Sandalwood Act 1934.

Clarry was a member of the Volunteer Defence Corps during the Second World War and became an enthusiastic sergeant. He sought exemption from the Labour Corps because of his important position in Forestry and was granted such an exemption.[1]

In 1948, C. J. Trist, Secretary of the Department of Forestry, became the first Chairman of the Rural Fires Board. Later on, Bill Pohlmann, then Working Plans Officer succeeded Trist as Chairman of the Board. The Rural Fires Act 1946 was passed by Parliament in that year but was not gazetted into force until 1948. The Rural Fires Board consisted of the Forestry Board with the Secretary of the Forestry Sub-Department (not the Queensland Forest Service now), Clarry Trist acting as Secretary. The Rural Fires Act ‘strengthened the control of rural fires. It provided for the organisation of bush fire brigades, with specific powers; strengthened the position of officers under the Act; gave wider scope for prompt measures to be taken in case of outbreaks; and afforded some protection for persons observing precautions’.[2]

One forest officer remembers attending a fire conference. ‘I can recall going to a conference on fire after the Rural Fires Board had just started and this bloke Bill Pohlmann saying after the meeting that it was the most successful he had ever been to because nobody had mentioned “burning off”. This is a clear reference to Forestry policy in regard to fire management of the 1960s. In the period from 1940 to 1958 approximately the Forestry Department had a ‘fire exclusion’ policy whereby no burning of any description was to be undertaken on State Forests. This of course led to huge build-ups of forest floor debris, which increased the potential danger of raging bushfires should the forest be accidentally lit from neighbouring spot fires or lightning strikes, for example. In the 1960s, the Department, aware of the shortcomings of the ‘fire exclusion’ policy began deliberately to light so-called cool fires in an attempt to reduce forest fuel levels and minimise ‘holocaust’ bush fires. ‘Burning off’ was becoming the new fire management policy and Pohlmann may not have been sympathetic to the policy or had heard so much of it that it was pleasant to sit at the meeting without a mention of it.

When Clarry Trist became Secretary in 1921, Forestry was a relatively simple organisation. His duties would have included overseeing the smooth and efficient operation of financial matters (revenue and expenditure); assisting the executive in any changes in district organisation; seeing to personnel matters; and ensuring adherence to the Forestry Employees Award. General correspondence, filing, issuance of permits and banking would also have been within his ken. When he died thirty-three years later in 1954, Forestry had become a relatively sophisticated institution. His administration officers now would have been responsible for additional tasks such as handling the clerical side of acquisition and reservation, illegal operations, sawmill licensing, more detailed accounting and a host of ancillary duties. Complexity had increased along with a wider range of accountabilities for administration officers.

Clarry Trist died on 1 January 1954 following an operation on a brain tumour. He had been unfit for about four months. It was written of him: ‘He died at the age of 57. He had been Secretary since Forestry became a separate Branch in the early 1920s and had come from the New South Wales Forestry Commission and joined the Queensland Public Service in 1919. Mr. Clarry Trist had been the first Chairman of the Rural Fires Board. He played a major part in building up the administration of the Forestry Department. He had charge of National Park administration and was instrumental in having National Parks retained as closely as possible to their natural state, with a minimum of interference.’

He has been described by the Forestry hierarchy as ‘a man of outstanding ability and knowledge, an administrator of the highest calibre, and he played a major role in shaping and moulding the future of forestry in this State’.[3]

Clarry Trist, the Man

Swain as mentor
Swain in Queensland brought C. J. up and put him in as Secretary. And he was a hell of a good Secretary. Very able man. He died as a relatively young man of a brain tumour. Alan, Clarry’s brother was, in a sense, brought up by Swain as well.

Writing ability
A former Conservator recalls C.J.’s prowess with the pen: ‘This officer called John was invited by the ABC to talk on the Country Hour about tree breeding. So John wrote his speech and sent it to me to read. I read the blasted thing and it was awful, so dry and dull. I took it up and had some ideas of how we could modify it a bit so I took it up to C.J. Trist and I asked him to read it. He read it and called me, saying how bloody awful it was. I gave C. J. a few suggestions of mine and he said he’d have a go at it, which he did. He did a marvellous job on it. Really, it was excellent. I took it to Jim who said it wasn’t much of an improvement. Saving face of course. When the speech was on the radio I heard it with Alan and the then Conservator, Victor (Peter) Grenning, and C.J. himself. Alan and Victor thought it was wonderful and highly praised it. I said nothing; C.J. said nothing. Only years later – I don’t know how it came up in conversation – did I tell Alan what had happened and he was amazed.

According to one Forestry officer ‘C.J. Trist was a man of great literary skill. He came from a journalist family and he had the ability to write in one paragraph what the average person would take a page to tell you. As a junior clerk I used to take letters in to him for signature, but he inevitably changed the wording of the letters. So you got into his way of thinking. He had a terrific influence on my writing ability.’

Another story substantiated Clarry’s writing ability, if not his oratorical skills. According to one of C.J.’s contemporaries: ‘C.J, as he was called, had a marvellous intellect, which was mostly evident in the written word. He could write a letter better than anybody I’ve ever seen. When we were young in the Department we often submitted letters to C.J. for vetting and when he changed them as he sometimes did, you thought, Well now why didn’t I think of that?’ And yet, you know, although he had a marvellous script, he could not get on his feet and farewell the office boy. He could not stand up and deliver. He could write but not make a small speech.’

On the subject of ‘script’, a person’s handwriting style in earlier times could say a lot about him. Writers could fall between those who conformed to authority and tradition on the one hand and those who tried to express some individual flair and creativity on the other. For professional clerks, legibility and conformity to the orthodox style was usual in Britain, and quite probably in Australia as well. ‘Later, particular styles inculcated by writing masters became the mark of an educated person and a gentleman of leisure, making handwriting a heady signifier of social class as well.’ By the 1950s in Britain, ‘as breaches appeared in the class system, handwriting style had become a source of moral panic’. Again, in Britain: ‘The most popular style was a round, cursive hand called Civil Service – It was simpler than copperplate but still quite slow to write legibly. Lawyers and clerks of every variety were particularly keen on this style.’[4]

Strictness
It was said of Clarry that he was a bit strict and several of the Head Office staff were a bit wary of him, particularly as he was in charge of clerical staff, being Secretary of the Department. The following account comes from an old employee of Forestry: ‘One Saturday morning – we worked on Saturdays in those days – I was leaning on the back of my chair in the Records Section and my boss told me that if I did that when C.J. Trist came in I could possibly expect the sack. I don’t know if this would have been the case but in those days (I was young then) the bosses instilled a certain amount of fear in staff. But you know, I never found him like that, and to some extent I think it was because we were both terribly interested in cricket.’

Another employee of the time recalls that he was late for work one morning, in fact the second day of his employment. He got there two minutes late and in those days you were obliged to go into the Secretary’s office and sign the time book. However at nine o’clock precisely the Secretary (C.J. Trist) had already ruled in red ink a line under the last person’s signature and latecomers were officially recognised. According to the employee, ‘He gave me a little “talking to”. Later I found out that he was more impressed with somebody who came in at a quarter to nine and talked till a quarter past than someone who came in two minutes past nine and started work straight away.’

‘C.J. Trist was very gifted. He had his foibles too, of course. He wasn’t well liked but he kept discipline that’s why. But he was a fair man and he really had his heart in the right place. If someone were in strife he’d do his best for them. But he never got any credit for it. I’d hear word out in the bush what a bugger of a man he was and I’d be forever trying to set the record straight.’

Interests
This ecomes from a fellow cricket lover: ‘C.J. Trist was a mad cricket fanatic. As a matter of fact I went into his office one day to ask him for half a day off to go to the cricket and for the time to be deducted from my leave (which was perfectly alright, you could do that) and he agreed – but then tore up my application.’

John endorses his father’s love of the game: ‘He took a keen interest in my fledgling career with lots of advice. He was also a member of the Queensland Cricket Association. Every four years, when the Ashes were being contested in England, we would paint the kitchen so we could listen to the broadcast away from the rest of the family.’

Clarry’s son John said that, ‘Dad was a man of diverse interests. He loved literature and read widely, especially Shakespeare and poetry, which he used to declaim to an enthralled audience, namely us children. He loved billiards – our dining table was in fact a billiard table covered by three detachable leaves. Each year he used to aim to make a 100 break on his birthday – a feat in which I was a minor participant. One year I had to stay up till 1.30am but he still made a break of 100 on his birthday.’

Clarry was keen on chess. He would invite friends in for a game quite frequently. He and his brother Alan were fond of stamp collecting and between them built up a very good set of albums.

Son John says Clarry had a ‘good baritone voice and I have memories of him singing excerpts from Gilbert and Sullivan repertoires after he and mum had been to a recital’. He also loved drawing and produced some fine pencil sketches; mostly of his family.

Clarry was well-read on the political systems of the times. He had a particular interest in Bertrand Russell and the progress of socialism, especially in the USSR’s Five-Year Plans but his interest never went beyond the academic.

According to daughter Joyce: ‘In his later years Dad became a bowling addict. One of my children, when asked where Pa was would always reply “Oh, he’s at the bowling pub”. Out of the mouth of babes!’

Tributes to Clarence John Melrose Trist

Director’s Tribute on Trist’s Forestry Career
The following tribute to Secretary C.J. Trist, following his demise on New Year’s Day, 1954, comes from the pen of the Director of Forests at the time, Mr Victor Grenning:

It is with the deepest regret that we record the passing of our highly respected Secretary, Mr. C.J. Trist, on New Year’s Day, after a prolonged illness.

C.J. had been with us for over 35 years having joined the Department on 28.11. 1918. He was largely responsible for the germination, establishment and development of our organisation. A man of outstanding ability and knowledge, he never spared himself in the service of the State. An administrator of the highest calibre, he was adept at devising systems and procedures and solving difficult problems. His facile pen had the touch of genius and his contributions in this direction brought much credit to the Department. He possessed such intensive and extensive knowledge that for 30 years he has been my guide and adviser.

By his passing the National Parks and their innumerable devotees have lost their best official friend. An idealist, he was chiefly instrumental in laying down the adopted policy of preserving these areas, aptly referred by him as “reservations of great natural attraction”, in their primeval condition with a minimum of interference. Despite, at times, much opposition, he resolutely and uncompromisingly fought for the maintenance of this policy – a tribute to his character and high ideals.

The Department’s existence has not always been uneventful. In C.J.’s earlier days times were very hectic and often full of strife but he always most courageously carried out more than his share of the burden and to the end remained an ardent advocate for the cause of Forestry.

He was a family man and perhaps my happiest memory of C.J. is that of a proud and adoring grandfather surrounded by a bevy of charming grandchildren.

He always took a very keen interest in sport and of recent years has been an enthusiastic roller and the various kitties on the local greens will know of his absence because of their less disturbed existence.

The Department will be much the poorer for C.J.’s passing and I, personally, will greatly miss the benefit of his knowledge and experience and the good company of his genial personality and clever wit. I know that the officers of the Department share with me this personal loss.

I am honoured to have known and worked with him. May his soul rest in peace.

Secretary Bill Wilkes’ Tribute to Trist’s National Parks’ Administration

Clarry’s interest in, and policy-making success in regard to National Parks, is mentioned in the following words in an address on the ‘National Park concept and its application to Queensland’ by his successor as Secretary, William (Bill) Wilkes, himself a lover of National Parks, some seven years after Clarry’s death. :

A little over 90 years ago, around a camp fire in the State of Wyoming, in the United States of America, in the wilderness of what is now known as the Yellowstone National Park, expression was voiced to a philosophy, which in subsequent years was to spread to most of the civilised countries of the world, and become one of the most interesting developments of our time.

The historic setting for the birth of the National Park concept was the juncture of two rivers in NorthWest. Here was camped a party of explorers, amongst whom was one Cornelius Hedges, a Montana lawyer and judge. The party had undertaken an exploration of the Yellowstone country, and as the expedition drew to its close, and the grandeur and beauty of the region was confirmed by their own observations, the members around the camp fire discussed the opportunities for wealth and personal gain within this wilderness area.

It was during these discussions that Cornelius Hedges expressed a directly opposite opinion to the one of personal gain, when he gave voice to the following words:

‘It seems to me that God made this region for all the people and all the world to see and enjoy forever. This great wilderness does not belong to us – but to America. Let us make a public park of it and set it aside for America – never to be changed, but left sacred always, just as it is now, so that all Americans may know how splendid this early America was, how beautiful, how wonderful.’

This noble concept was readily accepted by the other members of the expedition and the outcome was the creation of the now famed Yellowstone National Park – an area of 2 million acres (809,444 hectares) – the first National Park in the world.

So was crystallised the character and purpose of the National Park idea. It will be seen that the underlying principle was one that placed the interests of all peoples above personal interests of profits … Might I quote the words of another American, Freeman Tilden who stated that National Park reservation is ‘management of the land for the perpetuation of the country’s natural and historic heritage untarnished by invasion and depletion other than that of invincible time’.

Wilkes then referred to the National Park concept in relation to Queensland where Parks were then administered by the Department of Forestry based on the American philosophy of National Park management:

The National Park concept has come to take a very proper place in the life of this State. In this connection posterity will be indebted to my predecessor in office, the late C.J. Trist, a man of high ideals, who did so much to place National Park administration in Queensland on such a sound basis.

Wilkes also made mention of the National Parks Association of Queensland under the Presidency of Mr. Romeo Lahey in furthering the National Parks ideal in Queensland and educating the public in appreciation of such areas. He praised the work of the Association for its work in the thirty years since its inception. Finally he looked to the future:

The people of this generation no less than those that are to come will want areas of natural reservation unspoiled by the hand of man where ‘far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife’ they may seek respite from the stress and strain of everyday life, among the trees, the ferny groves, the quiet glades, there to commune with nature and enjoy the wonderlands created by God.

Such was C.J. Trist’s interest in National Parks and his influence in policy making in their regard, that he was honoured on 11 March 1937 by a memorial at the Warrie National Park. A plaque there reads:

This entrance is a memorial
To the late Clarence John Melrose Trist,
Who as Secretary of the Forestry Department
From 1919 to 1953, did so much
To apply the National Parks Philosophy
In the State of Queensland

His ideal was to preserve as nearly as possible
In their primeval condition some fragments
Of the original Australia,
And to keep them unspoilt and untouched,
Not only for our enjoyment, but for that
Of our children and their children
For all time.

Forestry Department’s Annual Report 1954-55 Obituary
‘It is most appropriate, in this section of the Annual Report of the Forestry Department that special reference be made to the late C. J. M. Trist, who, until his untimely death on 1 January 1954, had charge of National Parks in Queensland.

The late Mr. Trist worked with untiring zeal and fervour for the furtherance of the National Park ideal in this State of Queensland.

The philosophy behind National Parks, originating in the famed Yellowstone National Park in the United States of America, found in him an ardent disciple … The late Mr. Trist always kept this National Park philosophy in mind and fought for its application here. He described our National Parks as:

Fragments of the original Australia, reserved so that they may be preserved in their primeval condition, for the recreation, health, enjoyment and education of the people as a whole.

Further Comments from Bill Wilkes, Successor to C.J. as Secretary
The following comments from Bill Wilkes are taken from his Romeo Watkins Lahey Memorial Lecture entitled ‘Down the Years with National Parks in Queensland’ delivered on 2 June 1972. They are placed in three sections.

My mind goes back quite vividly to 24 May 1921 when, as a shy young lad from a little village called Hampton on the Darling Downs, I stood under the awning of Anne Hathaway Café looking in awe at the big stone building housing the Lands Department of which Forestry was a part. I was trying to gather sufficient courage to report to the Secretary of the Department, whom my mind had envisaged as some crusty old gentleman who would have little time for a young recruit. I need have had no such fears because the person who interviewed me was none other than the youthful Clarry Trist, who immediately put me at ease, and so began an official and personal association which was to last down the years until Clarry was called to his Heavenly Reward. This was an association, which was to have a profound affect on my whole life, an association that was to mould my mind for an intense love of the things of nature. It was in such an environment in which my official career was served, and it was in such an environment in which my official career ended.

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As I have already indicated, my baptism into National Park Administration was in association with and under the watchful eye of Clarry Trist. He was an idealist in the true sense of the word. In support of my viewpoint, let me quote an incident, which occurred many years ago. With one of the field officers I had gone on a day visit to Palm Grove National Park on Tamborine Mountain. I was enthralled with the scenery and the beauty of the area, but I was somewhat appalled by the mode of entry into the Park. To gain access to the Park one had to crawl through a barbwire fence and encroach on a fowl run and cow yard. On my return to the office the next day, I related my impressions of the day’s visit to Clarry Trist, and, when describing my feelings on the mode of entry to the Park he turned to me and said rather brusquely, and I thought somewhat tartly, ‘Is that important, Bill?’ He went on to state that true lovers of a National Park had little regard for such matters and that he himself visited a Park to enjoy the tranquil atmosphere, to hear the birds sing and to see and enjoy wildlife in its natural habitat. He was quite oblivious to the things I have just mentioned. This gave me food for thought and made me realise I was working with a man apart from the commonplace. This was the character of the man who, in large measure, framed the sound management policies for National Parks in this State, which have been applauded by other Australian States and by overseas countries. In the framing of these early policies he was strongly aided and supported by Mr. Swain and Mr. Grenning.

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Clarry Trist was the first Secretary of the Forestry Department, a position he held until his death on 1.1.1954. In the 35 years of his official career, he played a dominant role in the development of the Forestry and National Park administration of this State. His deep and abiding love for the things of nature focussed his attention on National Parks very early in his career. In these Reservations he saw an outlet from the cares of everyday life, and he made an early resolve that such areas should be dedicated to the people and kept for all time in their natural condition. He thought of them as areas to which people might retreat, to enjoy at first hand the beauties of nature and in the words of the Psalmist as areas: ‘Where silence hushes discontent and petty fears are lost in space’

Clarry Trist was a man with a sensitive soul for the things of nature. He handed them on to me, and I feel sure to others who trained under him, a heritage to be proud of and a heritage to be lived up to and maintained.

Beekeepers’ Tribute
On his death, the Queensland Beekeepers’ Association wrote a letter to the Sub-Department of Forestry expressing their appreciation of C.J. Trist mentioning ‘the good work done by the late Mr. C.J. Trist who was Secretary of your Department (referring to the Department of Public Lands within which resided the Sub-Department of Forestry). Mr. Trist was ever ready to assist in the preservation of timber and the beekeepers of Queensland have lost a real friend’. The letter was dated 4 February 1954.

Tribute from a Mr. John Williamson
Mr. Williamson, along with many other people, was horrified at a proposal that chose Springbrook National Park as a destination for a tourist cableway. He railed against the ugly pylons, cables and cable cars that would spoil the area should the proposal go ahead. He quoted from a plaque at Canyon Lookout which had Clarry’s words: ‘To preserve as nearly as possible in their primeval condition some fragments of the original Australia, and to keep them unspoilt and untouched not only for our enjoyment but for that of our children and their children for all time.’

He finished his letter by stating that, ‘The time has come again, when people who care about the Hinterland come together and be counted; people who love Springbrook for what it is and not just for what money can be made out of it. I’m with Clarry all the way!

Tribute from son Robert (Bob)
Perhaps the greatest tribute of all came from Clarry’s son Robert in referring to C.J. as ‘My Dear Father’.

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Acknowledgments
My thanks to Clarry Trist’s family for personal details of both Alan and Clarry.

References
Annual Reports of the Forestry Administrations in the 20th century.

• Carron, L.T., (2000): A Brief History of the Australian Forestry School. AFS Reunion 2000 Inc. ACT.
• Charlton. P., (2002): ‘Power Players’. Our Queensland – Book 3. Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail. Brisbane.
• Extracts of typescripts from tapes of various Forestry personnel.
• Taylor, P., (1994) Growing Up – Forestry in Queensland. Allen and Unwin Pty. Ltd. St Leonards, NSW 2065. Australia.
• Vines, G., (2005): ‘The big scribble’, New Scientist – 25 June Edition, Vol. 186. Reed Business Information CAN 000 146 921. Chatswood, Sydney.