BUSINESSMAN, community figure, much-loved father, husband, Pa and great Pa – even part-time magician and clown – Malcolm Sprenger aka Magical Mal filled his life and shared it big-heartedly.
A memorial service was held last Wednesday for Mr Sprenger – known as Mal – who passed away peacefully a week earlier aged 88.
His family invited everyone to a celebration of his life on the land he loved so much, at the family business – Sprenger’s Rural Traders at Haigslea.
The service was followed by a committal ceremony at Haigslea Cemetery with a detour first for one last lap of Marburg Showgrounds.
Mal was an enthusiastic member of the Marburg Show Society and he and wife Nan were made life members.
For his final journey, the coffin carrying Mr Sprenger was bolted to the back of a prime mover with the truck driven by Mal’s grandson Matt.
The setting for the service couldn’t have been more appropriate – inside the family’s produce store among bags of animal feed, with a forklift parked down the back.
At the front, where the altar would be in a church, rows of round bales were arranged, draped with a black cloth with orange words proclaiming Magical Mal.
Mal loved a laugh, a good yarn and telling stories and jokes. At one stage he employed a magician for the Marburg Show and was fascinated by their skills.
He became a member of the Queensland Society of Magic and became a popular magician and clown performing at parties, carnivals and agricultural shows.
During the service, daughter Michelle recalled “Sprenger’s famous pineapple crush” and how people would drive for kilometres with their Cottee’s cordial bottles to Sprenger’s fruit shop.
She said her dad loved animals and even built an island in a dam on the family farm so the swans could nest away from the foxes.
Granddaughter Katie said her Pa simply loved life.
“He taught us the value of hard work and made us appreciate what we had. He always had a way of making everything an adventure,” Katie said.
“He showed us that with the love of your family and the love of life by your side, you can create a whole lot out of very little.”
Son Ashley said: “As kids we had to work before we did anything for ourselves” but “Mum and dad took us on many holidays, water skiing, snow skiing.”
Long-time friend Des told the service Mal was “a real rough diamond and a real valuable one.”
Many of the people at the service identified with Paul Pocock and Jason Wendt, who were among countless young people who worked at Sprenger’s at weekends and school holidays.
Towards the end of the service, Slim Dusty songs played over a slideshow of Mal’s legacy – his family, friends, community work and business empire. Work and play on display.
Malcolm Frederick Sprenger was born on March 21, 1934 at Marburg Hospital to Frederick and Catherine Sprenger. His father was a farmer and his mother was previously a nurse.
Mal had a sister, Sylvia and he spent his early childhood on the farm and was educated at Haigslea school.
He was a member of the Marburg junior farmers club and one time the club joined with the Lanefield Club to learn First Aid at Rosewood Ambulance Brigade and there he met Nanette Campbell.
They soon became more than good friends and were married two years later in St Paul’s Church of England in Ipswich.
They lived and worked the family farm, growing crops and selling them at the markets and were blessed with children Lindsay, Michelle and Ashley.
One year Mal had a large crop of rock melons and a fruiterer offered him a ridiculous price. Mal said he would rather take them home and feed them to the pigs.
Instead, the melons were set on a trailer beside the road with Nan – and Ashley in a pram – to sell them. Sprenger’s fruit shop was born.
With customers asking to buy hay, Mal had another idea. He put a trailer beside the shop loaded with hay and that was the beginning of the produce business.
After 40 years the fruit shop was leased out and Mal concentrated on the produce. The business is now run by Mal and Nan’s youngest son Ashley and his wife Pauline.
Nan and Mal travelled to Fiji, Singapore, Thailand, China, USA, Canada, New Zealand, UK, Germany and Scotland and they caravanned around Australia.
Mal was always active and interested in new challenges. He could water ski, snow ski, windsurf, sail and he even flew a light plane and drove a race car.
