REVEREND Trevor Foote visited Rosewood last month to share stories and memories with the Rosewood History Group about his days living in the area and also from his life of service to the Uniting Church of Australia.
Across six decades of ministry, Trevor, supported by his late wife Dawn, served families in the Australian outback, the cities and in his home town of Rosewood.
Although born in Brisbane, Trevor grew up in Rosewood where he attended primary school. His father, Arthur (Roy) Foote, was a bank teller at the Rosewood National Bank in 1948.
The Rosewood National Bank opened in 1901 and the original building is currently occupied by the Rosewood County Women’s Association. The bank’s safe remains inside the premises.
Roy Foote joined the bank in 1942, and he signed the inside wall of the bank safe with the then Ledger Keeper Don Baines and Bank Manager Bill Street.
It was this signature that brought Trevor back to his home town and together with the Rosewood CWA President Gaylene Stack, he pointed it out while taking a moment to reflect on his career and his time in Rosewood.
“In the early years of my career, I spent seven years working for the National Bank, before hearing the call to Christian Ministry which then led me to a different path,” he said.
“I trained in the Methodist Ministry and after serving six years on probation I was ordained in 1966. I was then appointed to the Federal Methodist Inland Mission, the West Kimberley Patrol based in Broome, Western Australia in 1967.
“Four years of service in this context became the foundational experience on which my subsequent holistic and successful ministry was built.”
In 1976, Trevor’s next calling led him to travel back to Ipswich, and in 1977 he supervised the amalgamation of seven Methodist Churches, a Presbyterian Church, a Congregational Church and a Co-operative Church to form one of the largest parishes in Queensland at the inauguration of the new Uniting Church in Australia.
“After five years of serving the families in Ipswich, I was then posted to Roma, Kingaroy, Graceville and then finally Forest Lake,” he said.
“During my time with the church I have met and supported many families and I have conducted more than 1,000 weddings, along with hundreds of Japanese blessings.
“In 2003, I returned to Ipswich to retire, and I have continued to supply ministry when needed in Lowood, Fernvale, Rosewood, Haigslea, Walloon, Peak Crossing, Boonah, Kalbar and in the Ipswich churches.”
In 2013 Trevor was awarded the Order of Australia Medal for his service to community, and to the Uniting Church in Australia.
Trevor’s hobbies include fishing, reading, tennis and ancestry research, where he often reflects on his family roots that date back to the 1880’s.
“My Ipswich family roots go back to the 1880’s when my great grandfather, Arthur Foote, emigrated from England to Ipswich and established the joinery firm of Arthur Foote in Lowry Street, North Ipswich,” he said.
“My father and grandfather were both born in Ipswich, and my great grandparents on my mother’s side, William and Susannah Munckton were also Ipswich pioneers. They are buried in the Ipswich cemetery.”
The Rosewood History Group discussed ways to preserve the signatures that remain on the National Bank safe walls, and history buff David Pahlke is currently looking into options.
