The Bicket family name is synonymous with many community projects in Gunnedah but the enormous contribution made by John Bicket and his son Jack has faded into the mists of time.

While the name lingers on in Bickett Street, a cul-de-sac just off George Street adjacent to Ashford’s Watercourse, and the Bicket Green at Gunnedah Bowling Club, two generations have passed since the dynamic duo made their mark in their adopted town.

Scottish-born John Bicket Snr and his family came to Gunnedah in the 1920s after buying the property Tranquille, 32km from town. Mr Bicket had been a keen bowler at Warrawee BC in Sydney and missed his bowls so much when he came to Gunnedah, he was determined to build a green in his new home.

He persuaded mayor of the day, Cleve Pearson, to call a public meeting to gauge interest in June 1929. That meeting resolved to purchase a former resting paddock for stud sheep from Alfred Bacon for 500 pounds. Twelve people each agreed to contribute 100 pounds in debentures at three per cent interest. John Bicket was elected president and the committee wasted no time initiating the project.

Members and supporters began to acquire couch grass turf for the green, most of that coming from the Bicket family property. Jack Bicket removed the back seat from his Buick motor car so that he could transport sods to the site.

The following year the club borrowed 800 pounds from the bank, to begin construction of the clubhouse, which was officially opened by president of the Royal NSW Bowling Association, John Scott, on April 8, 1931.

The green has been in use ever since and bears the name The Bicket Green.

John Bicket was also the first president of the Gunnedah Caledonian Society, formed in 1929, which conducted a major fund-raising effort through the 1930s. The society supported the local hospital, baby clinic and the Benevolent Society, as well as maintaining a cot at Burnside Homes in North Sydney. The annual “Scots’ Day” was the biggest sports program of the year in Gunnedah.

John Bicket died on August 10, 1937, aged 66 but following in his footsteps was his son John Bicket Jnr known as Jack.

Jack Bicket was a moving force in the life of Gunnedah for close to 40 years.

He had an extraordinary range of interests and an unparalleled zest for life, which saw him at the forefront of many major community efforts between the late 1930s and the 1960s.

Born at Wagga Wagga on September 27, 1908, he moved to Sydney after World War 1, attending Scots College, where he excelled in rowing, football, shooting, swimming, athletics and cricket.

As a young man he drove John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, to outback Queensland as Flynn started up his inland flying medical service out of Cloncurry in 1928.

He helped his father cut the turf on Tranquille for the first bowling green and transported it into town in the back of the family car. It was probably this action that sharpened the interest of young Jack Bicket in community projects.

Jack Bicket married Marjorie (Madge) Currie in 1937, also taking over the property that year on the death of his father. On Tranquille he built a shearing shed, ran sheep and cattle and grew wheat, also purchasing heavy dam-sinking equipment which was used to build three airports during the war. He also ran tennis tournaments during the war to raise funds for the troops.

Jack Bicket was involved in many community groups – he was also prominent in town musicals, which were popular entertainment at the time.

In the early 1950s, Jack Bicket took on one of his most challenging roles, when he became president of the Gunnedah Memorial Pool Committee. As a fund-raising initiative for the pool project, the committee built the Porcupine motorcycle track, which drew large crowds and raised thousands of pounds through the 1950s.

The committee also ran charity efforts, including queen competitions and cement and wheat appeals to raise money. The selected site for the pool was in ANZAC Park, formerly a rubbish tip, and a huge quantity of rock and earth was needed to fill the quarry. In July 1952 a total of 3295 lorry loads of filling was placed on the site in 21 days. More than 2500 cubic yards of rock was also blasted and removed from the site.

Jack Bicket was president of the committee and chief organiser right through to completion of the project in 1958-59.

Aside from his community role, he found time to take part in the first two Redex Reliability road trials around Australia, then the longest and toughest road trials in the world.

A keen horse sports enthusiast, he was a foundation member of the Gunnedah Pony Club in the 1950s and organised the club’s first gymkhana.

Jack Bicket was heavily involved in fund-raising efforts for construction of St Andrew’s Presbyterian church and manse, arranging the transport of around 150,000 bricks from Beresfield to Gunnedah. He was an elder of the church for many years.

A terrible blow, however, was the death of his wife Madge in a road accident in Gunnedah in 1957.

Agricultural shows were a lifelong interest for Jack Bicket and for more than 70 years he attended the Sydney Royal, as well as working on the Gunnedah Show Society committee.

Mr Bicket remarried in the early 1960s and he and his wife Margaret left Gunnedah in the late 1960s, retiring to Lake Macquarie. They then moved to a retirement village at Bateau Bay, and from there travelled extensively around Australia.

Jack Bicket never lost his spirit of adventure – in his late eighties he drove to North Queensland and the next year drove all through the outback, along the Darling River, camping out at night. He died at Bateau Bay on June 27, 2000, aged 91, leaving behind an impressive legacy of community works in his adopted town.

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