The loss of his wife turned former dairy farmer Geoff Beattie into an award-winning baker.
Story Bruce McMahon Photos David Kelly
It was a blunt message from the heavens that set Geoff Beattie on the road to becoming a champion maker of marmalades, jams and rich fruit cakes. The dairy farmer was deep in his cups one night after the death of his wife Elaine. “I hit the grog. This is true, eh. I drank half a bottle of brandy, and I was well cut. You might think I’m crazy but about one o’clock in the morning, I started talking to the Big Fella up top and said, ‘What are you doing up there? Taking a good mother of 4 young kids and you’re letting riffraff run around and this mother’s been taken. What are you doing?’”
“And he spoke to me. He said: ‘Get your act together; you’ve got 4 kids to rear’. I got out of bed, cut up a case of oranges, made marmalade and it turned out real good. It got me off the grog. I wasn’t an alcoholic, but I’d have a binge. I’d get down and then I’d hit the grog.”
Geoff, now long retired from dairying, still has a drink and still makes jams and cakes in that farmhouse high on the hill outside Glamorgan Vale, an hour west of Brisbane. And wins awards from coast to coast for his cooking. He has a mess of ribbons – maybe close to 5,000 – for best in show from Brisbane’s Ekka to the Perth Royal Show.
This story excerpt is from Issue #160
Outback Magazine: April/May 2025
