Dr Allan MaruffMedical Practitioner & Surgeon,

Tea Industry Pioneer, Inventor, Egalitarian, Philanthropist, Shire Councillor

Artist Ivy Zappala with youngest daughter Maggie at the official opening of Allan Maruff House

28 November 1987.

Printed by Bolton Print

246 Hartley Street, Cairns, Queensland

Copyright © Maggie Dawkins

April, 2016

National Library of Australia Card Number ISBN 978-0-646-95273-4

Author: Maggie (Maruff) DawkinsMobile: 0417 837 826

Email: familydawkins@bigpond.com

| 1 |

Dr Allan Maruff

The youngest of eight children, Allan Maruff had a short family life. Born to Fredrick and Maggie Maruff on 14 February 1911 at Ferozepur, in British-ruled India, Allan was orphaned before he turned 10. His father, a doctor, died of suspected septicaemia (blood poisoning) a few years after Allan’s birth, while serving in the Middle East during World War I. Maggie, a nurse, kept the family together for a short time until she, too, died just a few years later.

Allan’s siblings were unable to care for him as they worked and studied to establish themselves. He was placed in the care of the Jesuit brothers at St Xavier College in Kolkata (Calcutta), which became affiliated with Calcutta University from 1862. The college motto, to which Allan referred throughout his life, was, ‘Nothing is perfect as long as anything remains to be done’.

Known for his sharp intellect, Allan was encouraged by his teachers to sit for the entrance exam for medicine in 1925 with the intention of giving him a goal to work towards. At his first attempt, as a 15-year-old, he qualified to enrol at the Calcutta Medical College. However, the minimum age requirement was 18, so to fill in time Allan completed a Bachelor of Science degree at the college, topping the class in botany. He was awarded a university gold medal for this achievement, and remains the youngest recipient of this medal in the university’s history.

Allan attended medical college from 1930 to 1935. An academic record dated 24 September 1941 lists his prizes and awards – a record unsurpassed to this day.

| 2 |

• Arnott Medical Prize for General Proficiency 1931-33• Gold Medal Pathology• Gold Medal Dental Surgery• Gold Medal Ophthalmic Surgery• Shank’s Medal in Clinical Pathology• Government Prize in Clinical Surgery• 1st Certificate of Honours in Surgery• Hunter’s Prize for Medicine and Surgery• Class Assistantship in Pathology (1 year stipend)

In 1936, aged 25, Allen took up the pathology stipend and became house surgeon to the professor of surgery. On 21 March the same year he married Dorothea Enid Haenow.

During World War II Allan served as a surgical medical officer in the Indian Army in the Persia Iraq Force stationed in the Western Desert, in Iran and Russia. He held the rank of major.

After the war he went to Britain to study, becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians in 1948. These qualifications were equivalent to re-sitting exams for his medical qualifications through the two colleges rather than through a university. With a wife and two young children to support, Allan could not afford to sit for the Fellowship exams, despite selling the gold medals he was awarded in Calcutta and supplementing his meagre income by tutoring other medical students through their fellowship exams.

With living conditions in London difficult after the war due to a shortage of affordable housing, and with food rationing continuing indefinitely, Allan decided the family should emigrate to Australia.

| 3 |

By the end of 1948 he had secured a position as a Commonwealth medical officer attached to the Queensland Health Department, thanks largely to his tropical medicine experience in India and extensive surgical experience during the war. Allan’s first posting was to Port Moresby in Papua New Guinea, as it was then within the department’s jurisdiction as an Australian territory.

He was attached to three hospitals: the European, the native and the tuberculosis hospital on Gemo Island, where he was in charge of the thoracic unit. Contemporaneous reports and personal letters held with the Queensland Health Department record Allan Maruff ’s ability to gain the confidence of the indigenous people. As he said himself, successful eye surgery and successful thoracic surgery speak for themselves among his patients, and these results were the best recommendation to others needing medical assistance.

While at Gemo Island hospital Allan documented his ground-breaking research – which was later published – using the bacterial antibiotic streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis.

After 21 months in Port Moresby Allan requested a transfer. With Enid and their three children – the youngest having been born in PNG – Allan arrived in Richmond, western Queensland, as the medical officer. However, a private letter to John Gunther, head medical officer of the Queensland Health Department, reveals an insight into Allan’s yearning to return to PNG to work. ‘I have often tried to get her [wife Enid] to take a little trip up there and meet the folk,’ he wrote. ‘She is very nervous I may suddenly stage a sit down strike at Gemo: the affection is still alive.’

This affection for the people of PNG remained with him for the rest of his life.

Allan stayed in the Queensland health system, moving to wherever a medical officer was required in towns in the north of the state. In 1954, as hospital doctor in Tully, Allan heard that Dr R. F. Craig had recently passed away in Innisfail and his private practice was for sale.

| 4 |

He bought the house at 112 Rankin Street and the surgery next door on the corner of Rankin and Alice streets. It was the first home Allan Maruff ever owned. Aged 43, he had made a conscious decision that Innisfail was where he belonged. His commitment to the town, the district and the north never wavered. He would often recite the Latin inscription at the sculpture of the marble canecutter situated on the riverbank: Ubi bene ibi patria – ‘Where one is content, there is one’s homeland’. It was in Innisfail that Allan and Enid’s fourth and fifth children were born.

Allan called Enid ‘Carro’, a nickname derived from the Latin carissima, meaning dearest, or much-loved. On a Sunday drive Carro remarked that the foothills of Mt Bartle Frere reminded her of the north-east Indian state of Assam, where as a child she holidayed with her family. Inspired by her observation, Allan began to read and research all he could find on growing tea. He began a long association with the South Johnstone Bureau of Tropical Agriculture, and agricultural scientists Jaap Shrieker and Dr Bert Grough supported and encouraged his interest and growing enthusiasm.

Allan and Carro at home, enjoying a cup of their own tea.

| 5 |

In 1958 Allan purchased 320 acres at Nerada. Clearing the virgin rainforest took time and patience, of another kind – in contrast to his usual ‘patients’, as he liked to point out. The first seedlings cultivated at Nerada were from seed provided by the bureau. More than two decades earlier, in 1936, tea planting had been trialled at an experimental station at Bartle Frere, using seed sourced from Assam. The first of 15,000 plantings at the Nerada tea garden began on 26 January 1960, and there is some dispute about the source of these original seedlings. Contrary to popular belief, only ‘some’ of them were from the Cutten property at Bingil Bay, but the conjecture is academic because more than 70 per cent of the young plants died during the drought of 1961-62. Undeterred, Allan Maruff propagated his own, more resilient, strain, using ‘planting slips’ from those plants that had survived.

‘He planted his tea seeds – which are bigger than a marble – in their permanent place in slits in sheets of black polythene laid on proposed rows, this by-passing the high labour costs of transplanting seedlings and weed control. He designed and had manufactured his own mechanical clipper and the world tea industry should benefit from his initiative of which he, as pioneer, has had the doubtful privilege of providing the high initial cost of a prototype.’

(Hurricane Lamps and Blue Umbrellas: The Story of Innisfail and the Shire of Johnstone, North Queensland. Dorothy Jones, 1973, Page 383)

| 6 |

The commercial mechanisation of tea harvesting, which Allan pioneered.

Packaged tea from the Maruff plantation at Nerada.

| 7 |

While the tea industry was Allan’s personal obsession, he also championed northern development in other agricultural ventures such as the commercial cultivation of rani – a natural fibre used for the production of cloth or yarn – cashew nuts, lime leaves, turmeric and pepper. To prove that these plants would grow in local conditions, Allan filled every square inch of his garden at Rankin Street with many exotic and unheard-of plants and vines. His patients, Levis and Louis Campagnolo, successfully established Australia’s first pepper plantation at Silkwood, and also produce turmeric and lime leaves.

The seed of Allan’s fascination with plants may well have been sown by his mother; he often spoke of her keen interest in botany and her talent for creating drawings and watercolours of botanical specimens from their local environment.

This fascination branched out into a keen interest in Aboriginal medicines and indigenous people’s knowledge and use of plants in the district. Allan learnt a great deal from his Aboriginal patients and held the view that it was quite possible that the rainforests and surrounding tropical flora might hold the treatments and cures for Western ailments and diseases.

Allan putting botanical specimens under the microscope.

| 8 |

Through contact with a diverse range of patients, Allan became aware of bright young people from Aboriginal and less fortunate backgrounds who he felt would benefit from furthering their education. Education was the key to a successful life, this local doctor believed. He mentored the promising students and their families, assisting them by purchasing text books, paying for extra coaching or tuition, in some cases paying boarding school fees, and providing financial support for tertiary education. There are doctors, dentists, nurses and teachers from the Innisfail district whom Allan Maruff supported to realise dreams they never thought possible, changing their lives and the lives of their families.

As a member of the local RSL, Allan initially focused on care for the ageing returned servicemen and women. This stimulated a growing interest in and pursuit of wider knowledge of all aspects of aged care in the community. He was adamant: Ageing is not a disease! Allan saw positive aspects to growing old, as he held the view that it beat the alternative – death. He was vigilant in ensuring that the elderly were afforded respect; leading by example, he insisted on not being rushed when he interacted with elderly people. He took time to listen and sought their views. Dignity for the individual, engagement with the person, no matter how old or infirm, was paramount. He would rebuke carers by reminding them to ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

A committed advocate for improving the lives of physically disadvantaged children, Allan Maruff was president of the local branch of the Crippled Children’s Society, and a staunch advocate of the view that every life is precious and a gift. Some ‘gifts’ just take a bit more time and effort to unwrap to discover the potential and quality of that life. He encouraged parents to appreciate the wonder of their children’s capabilities in spite of their disabilities. He would remark that a community could be measured by the care and consideration shown to the most vulnerable, particularly its young and elderly members.

In Allan’s consulting room hung a nondescript framed print to which most people frequenting the room would have been oblivious, yet the picture of the Good Samaritan was his constant companion. He had it in front of him every day he worked in that room. It hung behind the door from the waiting room, revealing itself when he closed the door after ushering a patient into the room.

| 9 |

The importance of the parable had a profound influence on him. First, it is from Luke 10:25-37. Allan gave Jonathon, his second son, Luke as his middle name. He deliberated and raised questions about what we should learn from this parable. Cultural or racial tolerance, absence of social or religious hypocrisy, freedom from prejudice or fear – or all of these ideals! People are people regardless of their circumstances, he insisted.

Those lucky enough to engage in this much-loved philosophical conversation with Allan would be reminded that Martin Luther King Jr referred to the Good Samaritan parable in the last speech he gave, on the night before he was assassinated. King spoke of having travelled on the same road as the Good Samaritan from Jerusalem to Jericho, describing it as a perfect environment for ambushing people. During the time of Christ, the road was known as the ‘bloody pass’. King suggested that, in Jesus’s parable about a traveller beaten and left for dead, the priest and the Levite who ignored the victim may have been afraid to go to his assistance. ‘If I stop to help this man what will happen to me?’ Was the man really injured or was he pretending in order to attack his unsuspecting rescuer? King reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’ This was in the context of his speaking in support of predominantly African American garbage collectors, who were on strike for better conditions in Memphis, Tennessee. Allan Maruff posed his own question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ He was concerned that if he did not help a person in need, whatever that need may be, then he would be diminished as a human being.

Allan was proud to acknowledge his belief in the Fabian ideals of banishing inequality and espousing a just society with an adequate minimum wage, low-cost housing and a universal health care system. It is not surprising that he became president of the local branch of the Australian Labor Party.

| 10 |

He may have appeared to be a man of contradictions. He refused to rebut disparaging comments that he purported to be a Labor man yet drove a Rolls-Royce. Close friends and family were privy to the pledge he had made to himself as an orphan in Calcutta. A highlight of that child’s day was to stand peering out between the gates of the orphanage to get a glimpse of a beautiful Rolls-Royce as it glided by, no doubt carrying a successful businessman to and from work. He was entranced by the car’s beauty and it became a beacon for his measurement of achievement as an adult. Allan Maruff vowed to work hard and own his own Rolls one day. He said Australia gave him that opportunity; he put in the required hard work!

Allan enjoyed a wide range of hobbies. He took great pleasure in continuing to improve and learn a raft of languages, subscribing to recordings to practise in his spare time. He readily quoted obscure passages of Shakespeare to make a point in conversation. Allan also enjoyed opera and the theatre and was a classical music buff; he had a vast vinyl record collection. He was a flamboyant ballroom dancer, played a mean hand of bridge, was a crack shot with a rifle, a strong swimmer, golfer and motorbike and horse rider. A renowned cook, he loved fine food and, of course, a drink! Allan Maruff had a well-stocked wine cellar.

Allan and Carro had five children: Jennifer (born 1938), Peter (1940), Cassandra (1948), Maggie (1957) and Jonathon (1959). Maggie was born at home – 112 Rankin Street, Innisfail – and Jonathon was delivered at the Innisfail District Hospital.

A portrait of Allan Maruff was painted by prominent local artist Ivy Zappala in the 1970s. Owned by the Cassowary Coast Regional Council, it hangs in Allan Maruff House located, fittingly, overlooking the meeting rooms at 49 Rankin Street.

The Maruff family circa 1966Sitting, left to right: Jennifer with baby Giselle, Allan, Peter (son of Peter and Gail), Christopher (son of Jennifer and Paul), Enid (Carro), Stephen (son of Peter and Gail), Maggie. Standing behind, left to right: Cassandra, Peter, Jonathon, Gail (Peter’s wife), Paul Thomas (Jennifer’s husband).

Dr Allan Maruff

• Born 14 February 1911, Ferozepur, British India

• Orphaned at a young age. Raised by the Jesuits of St Xavier College, Calcutta, where the motto is, ‘Nothing is perfect as long as anything remains to be done’

• Graduated as a doctor in 1935. Recipient of an unprecedented nine prizes and gold medals

• Surgeon/major in the Indian Army in World War II, serving in the Western Desert in Iran and Russia

• Migrated to Australia with family in 1948. Posted to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, as Commonwealth Medical Officer that year

• Lived and worked as a doctor in Innisfail from 1954 to 1979

• Established Australia’s first tea garden at Nerada in 1959

• Pioneered the commercial mechanisation of tea harvesting

• Advocate for life-long learning

• Mentor to secondary school students interested in pursuing further and higher education

• Member of the RSL, Member of the Crippled Children’s Society, President of the Innisfail Branch of the ALP

• Johnstone Shire Council member 1976 to 1979

• Died in Brisbane 19 July 1979