Peter Bruce ALLEN
Late of Hawks Nest
Passed away suddenly
Aged 65 years
Beloved husband of BERNICE.
Cherished father and father-in-law of LOUISE and CRAIG, GARTH and BROOKE.
Adored “Poppy Pete” of LUCAS, and loved Brother of JEFFREY and GRAEME and their families.
Relatives and friends are warmly invited to PETE’S Celebration of life this THURSDAY 12.6.2014 at Palmdale Lawn Cemetery and Memorial Park, 57 Palmdale Drive, Palmdale, in the Hillside Chapel commencing at 11.30am.
“Go The Knights”
I remember...... Mr Allen took me out to my first "fancy" restaurant. It was my best friend, Louise`s birthday. Mrs Allen was on a holiday in Bali with her sister so Pete took Louise, Garth and myself out for a special dinner to celebrate his daughter`s birthday. We went to Minmi Courthouse, big open fire burning, full of history, antiques, artefacts and alacarte dining.
Before we knew it, the owner had joined us and had opened a bottle of very expensive and well aged red wine from his private cellar and was sharing many a tale. That was our Pete, everyone`s mate! Unfortunately Loui, Garth and I were too young to enjoy this fine red (well infront of parents anyway) but we did take advantage of the dessert menu and enjoyed a historical private tour of the old courthouse. I was in awe of the Allen Family that night and felt very privileged to be part of their lives. Forever in my heart, Ky xo.
Peter Allen - 19 April 1949 to 5 June 2014 - a short but interesting life
Peter Bruce Allen was born on 19th April 1949 His mother was – Marjorie Era Allen – “Marj” and his father was – Thomas Claude Allen - Tom
Peter had 2 brothers – Jeff – the elder and Graeme – the younger. We both think Peter was so lucky to be “the middle brother”. I’m not sure that Peter always held that view. I have had the privilege of knowing Peter longer than anyone one else that’s still around.
The Allen family tree can be traced back to members of the first fleet – thus Peter could be considered to have been “a good Aussie boy” – and he proved to be that in many ways each and every day of his life.
We lived originally at Harris Park and then we moved to Victoria Road Parramatta in the early 1950’s. This is in the days of the milkman delivering a pale of milk to the front veranda from the horse drawn cart. We had chooks in the back yard – and they sometimes found their way to the table for dinner - and I can also remember that rabbit was also often on the menu. A TV set did not make an appearance in our house until about 1960.
We all shared a bedroom growing up and thus there were lots of “situations” we found ourselves in – as kids – particularly as 3 brothers often do who had to make their own entertainment – given that there was no TV etc!
We had one grandmother living with us and our other one lived next door and thus together with our mum we had lots of care and attention. But at times it was good to get away and be boys!
We walked to Parramatta primary school and then later Parramatta High School. This walk required us to cross the Parramatta River twice a day and this journey provided for some interesting activities at times – sometimes resulting in us getting home a little later and a little dirtier than normal. But those adventures along the banks of the Parramatta River were really fun!
After school and on the weekends we had the opportunity to explore Parramatta Park and the river banks as well as all the back streets of North Parramatta. Push bikes gave us great access to lots of adventures with our school mates. Also building billycarts and driving them down the hills in North Parramatta was another form of risky adventure.
Living within walking distance of Cumberland oval resulted in our mother being a keen Eels supporter and that probably also explains a little more about Peter’s strong interest in rugby league.
Given that our grandfather was a real estate agent and our father was in the electricity business based in Parramatta they had lots of contacts in the local community. Through these contacts our Dad got to hear about Norah Head on the central coast where a number of these Parramatta people had weekenders and thus we started to holiday there from an early age.
Our parents liked the area so much that they built a “weekender” at Norah Head and thus as kids we had great adventures on the rocky headlands, the beaches and sand hills as well as regularly fishing off the rocks and also a bit of boat fishing in the seas off Norah Head. In addition we spent many evenings prawning in the lakes around Toukley and Canton Beach.
Notwithstanding all these adventures, often the biggest challenge we faced as brothers was the 3 of us cramped into the back seat of an old Austin 10 on the 3 hour trip from home to Norah Head via the very winding old Pacific Highway - and back again a few days later. It was another tighter version of 3 in a bedroom and all the tricks we used to play on each other and our parents.
In about 1965 we moved to rural Baulkham Hills because our home in Parramatta was to be demolished due to road widening. The weekender at Norah Head was sold to help pay for the new house at Baulkham hills. The Hills area was so rural at that time that we had cows wandering around on our roadway and front yard and we had a couple of pet sheep in our backyard. I am sure that this experience influenced Peter in some of his future decisions on where and how to live his life with Bernice and Louise and Garth.
Peter completed the Leaving Certificate in 1967 and started work with Parramatta Council in the Central Library in 1968
Peter developed a strong interest in cars following gaining his licence in 1966. With a job he had some money to further this interest but these cars needed constant maintenance and repairs. Mini Minors were very popular in those times. Fortunately our Dad came in very handy in this area – and became Peter’s full time mechanic.
Peter met Bernice Ludgate – a Rouse Hill girl - in 1968 at a dance at Parramatta Town Hall when he was 19 and Bernice was 17
Peter was called up for National Service in 1969 and deferred pending his studies but elected to commence his Service in 1970 when he was still 20.
He undertook basic training at Puckapunyal and then infantry training at Singleton and then went to join his battalion 6 RAR in Townsville.
Peter married Bernice on 26th September 1970 at St Matthews Church at Windsor and they moved to Townsville and then they were transferred to Singapore.
Following his army service, Peter and Bernice returned to Australia in 1973 and lived initially at Guildford. Over this period Peter dabbled in several Local Government positions at both Parramatta and Baulkham Hills before going “bush” to Wauchope Council in 1974. The country life captured his heart as did his daughter Louise who was born on 18th June 1974 at Wauchope. Garth was born on 9th July 1976 also at Wauchope.
Peter and family returned to Sydney in 1976 and he dabbled in various enterprises including a Sports Store at Pendle Hill, pine furniture enterprise as well as transport companies. The family home for a number of years became Werrington.
Peter and the family moved to West Wallsend in 1985. Peter worked in pine furniture manufacturing and sales in the Newcastle region during the 1980’s with ultimately his love of cars leading him to become an accomplished used and new car salesman in the Newcastle region. Peter had a great gift of immersing himself into a local community and none so more apparent with his fervent adoption of the Newcastle knights as his team of choice.
The lure of a business opportunity and Hawks Nest saw the family move to the area in 1997 were “Pete” operated the Service Station until 2007
Jeff Allen
Happy Fathers Day Pete (2014).
You are missed every day.
All our love for eternity Garth and Brooke xxx
