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OBITUARY

JOHN GILL REMEMBERED FOR LONG BUSINESS CAREER IN TIMBER INDUSTRY

Well known businessman to the islands, John Gill, died recently on Tuesday 30th August.

John was the patriarch of the Gill family business, John Gill The Timber Man, for all of his working life.

He was extremely proud of the business that was started by his father, Lynnwood Lawrence Gill.

He once said: “we have been helping to build homes in South East Queensland since 1926.”

He told The Friendly Bay Islander in an interview four years ago: ”Since 1950 we have had yards at Rocklea and Cleveland, and I am proud to say we have been supplying timber in particular to the Bay Islands and the Redlands for the past 53 years," John Gill said.

The business started out all those years ago in 1926 from the Union Bank Chambers on the corner of Queen and Creek Streets, Brisbane, now the site of head office of the ANZ Bank.

Over the years, the family at one stage had its own timber mill just north of Kyogle in northern NSW and later owned a truss making factory at Geebung.

Ninety years after the business was first established and until his death, John Gill was still overseeing the operation with son David, running the Cleveland operations that serves the Bay Islands and Redlands.

David Gill told The Friendly Bay Islander that his dad ‘would be missed’.

“He never took his foot off the pedal and his love was mum, Margaret, and the business to the end,” David said.

John Gill did not have an easy life.

He was stricken with polio as a child and for most of his life needed crutches to move.

David Gill says there will be some ‘sorting out’ to do with the business, but he is ready and capable to bring about some changes that will now be necessary.

John Gill is survived by his wife Margaret, four sons and six grandchildren.

• John Gill

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