Fifteen men, their working lives bonded by wood, in October 14 years ago walked between grand Corinthian sandstone columns erected almost 85 years ago into Brisbane’s iconic Masonic Temple to gape in awe at the grandeur of the place and the precious timber structures ‘concealed’ inside. Wood Central senior editor Jim Bowden recalls the event.
Hoo-Hoo timber industry club members, foresters and Freemasons alike were celebrating Sunshine AusTIS, a successful conference of forestry and industry leaders held at Caloundra in 1982. All of them were connected to the conference in some way; six of them were on the original conference working committee formed 30 years ago.
These included the conference co-chairmen Jim Smart, former Conservator of Forests (1982–85) and Errol Wildman, who was chairman of the then Queensland Timber Board.
Hosts for the day were Dr Gary Bacon AM, former chief of forestry in Queensland and adjunct professor at Griffith University’s environmental futures centre, and Jim Bowden, life member of Brisbane Timber Industry Hoo-Hoo Club 218.
Dr Bacon, who was the incoming Grand Master of Freemasons in Queensland, ‘opened the doors’ of the temple, which had been closed to the public for many years, to give the group a tour of inspection.
The building on Ann Street in the heart of the Brisbane CBD was designed by Brisbane architect Mason Lang L. Powell, and the foundation stone was laid on Anzac Day 1928.
Built from Queensland sandstone, marble and timbers, the Freemasons Ann Street Memorial Centre is the headquarters of the craft in Queensland and a Masonic memorial to lives lost in world wars.
The Grand Hall features the original furniture selected from Queensland timbers — northern silky oak, maple and red cedar — and boasts one of Australia’s largest pipe organs erected beneath a gold-gilded ceiling.
The furniture was built within the building, the timbers lowered through the roof to joiners who worked in the open space.
Dominating the furniture is the Grand Master’s throne, carved from a single tree trunk of northern silky oak hardwood (Cardwellia sublimis). A giant clock in the Grand Hall keeps time in a wooden casing, also of silky oak, cut into three panels from a single trunk in 1930.
A lunch at the nearby historic Grand Central Railway Hotel in Ann Street followed the tour, and Jim Bowden — celebrating his 35th year as a timber journalist — reminded the gathering that the Hoo-Hoo Order was founded in Gurdon, Arkansas, USA, in 1892, and is the oldest industrial fraternal organisation in the US, boasting two US presidents, both Freemasons, as members — Theodore Roosevelt and Warren G. Harding – and Hollywood royal the film star Elizabeth Tayor who was judged Miss Hoo-Hoo International in a 1948 lumber industry contest in California.
The founding father of Hoo-Hoo was Bolling Arthur Johnson, a Freemason and editor of The Timberman Newspaper in Chicago, as Jim Bowden was quick to point out!
Gary Bacon countered that the order of Freemasonry dated back a bit further than this. The first Masonic lodge was founded in London in 1717, and historical documents give evidence of early Freemasons in Scotland as early as 1390.
Enjoying the day were industry representatives David Armstrong (Hoo-Hoo number 79526), Freemason Charles Achilles (86519), Don Towerton (83823), Charlie Henry (80739), Tim Evans (85181), Bill Philip (L-84008), Norris Lewis (79540), Errol Wildman (79580) and Jim Bowden (L-86504). Representing forestry were Freemason Jim Smart (Hoo-Hoo number 79560), Tom Ryan (88729), Dick Pegg (887218), David Gough, Brian Schaumberg and Freemason Gary Bacon.
Apologies were received from John Crooke, a Master Freemason and foundation member (1963) of Hoo-Hoo Club 218, Alan Jones, president of Club 218, and foresters Norm Clough, Keith Jennings, Tom Just and Lee Kleinschmidt.
Brisbane Hoo-Hoo Club 218, Melbourne 217, and Sydney 215 celebrate their 50th anniversaries next year, with Club 217 hosting a gala celebration dinner at the Victoria Park Convention Centre on August 31.
