Harald Lorek-Daszkowski obituary: how his wit and hard work prevailed

Arthur Calwell, the father of Australian immigration, would have been proud of Harald Lorek.

Harald was born in Hamburg, Germany, in late 1929 during the Weimar Republic and was 15 at the end of World War II and the destruction of the Third Reich.

His formative years were idyllic — stalking wild deer and gathering berries with sister Gerda and friends.

But the palmy days of boyhood were replaced by food shortages, curtailment of freedoms and later seeing huge firework displays from aerial phosphorous bombs, obliterating many housing estates.

Too young for army service, Harald was sent to work on farms requisitioned to supply food for the army.

That early experience would lead him to use such skills, on his long road from the rubble of the Reich, and then a divided post-war Germany, to the tranquillity of the WA Wheatbelt and his Merredin home.

Working on the Hamburg docks enabled him to do agricultural studies at night and he met his future wife Anna Schwarz while engaged in viticulture. Marriage and two daughters, (Anne and Gabriela), quickly followed. So did emigration, to the chagrin of his parents and family.

A poster proclaiming “Farmers wanted in Australia” promised a new start and he was assured of a job on remote Kununurra’s new irrigation scheme. On arrival Harald was flown there while his wife, again pregnant, went to rural Northam.

The promised house was not available so Harald returned to his family at the camp and went farming and learnt English at the same time.

Establishing in Merredin, his passion for chess made him popular with locals and other new Australians.

His third daughter, Karin was born in the town.

There were no thoughts of returning to Germany. Instead the family wanted to become Australian citizens and Harald’s farming ability saw him employed as a manager of Reichelt’s farm at Nukarni.

After three years, the multi-talented Harald was employed as a builders’ assistant with Reg Bryce, using his new skills to build his shed, then a house on his new £100 purchase in Colin Street. It would be home for 50 of the couple’s 63 years of married life.

During the building phase Harald contracted polio, but local tradesmen rallied to assist someone they had already recognised as a valued community member.

Anna, just as industrious, started to work in a laundry and cafe, while Harald, buying tiles for his home, was offered a job as concrete factory manager by Des Pellew. Later they bought Iversons Standard Laundry and expanded it into a modern regional commercial laundry service. Harald, in early retirement, assisted farmers, notably the Cahill and Smith families, at seeding and harvest.

This can-do attitude earned respect, as did the family’s attitude in helping other new Australians get a start in their labour-intensive industry.

Many of those people became friends and opponents in chess, a game Harald loved.

Significantly, while all those people have gone, their children turned out at his funeral because of his solicitous concerns for their parents, in good and bad times.

His kindness extended to others. In 1993 the new manager of the local newspaper, who was living away from home for his first six months, was offered their caravan and other facilities at the couple’s home.

At one stage while managing the Merredin Motel (as well as their laundry business), the Loreks were confronted by a tired young couple with two small children wanting a room, despite the place being fully booked. In a reversal of the Christmas story, the Loreks took them not to a stable, but to their own home.

Harald’s gregarious nature flowed on to community affairs.

He and the late Harry Snell were the founding lionhearts of Lions International (1966), and both became great ambassadors for that organisation, at home and abroad.

Harald remained in the Lions in Mandurah, from 2004 on, completing 57 years of service, including in virtually all senior positions of the organisation.

He was a fine, quick-witted public speaker too and showed that as a foundation member in 1973, during the formative years of the strong Rostrum Club 37. When another gifted speaker, Angus McNaughton, the publican of the Oasis Hotel, was waxing lyrical on the greatness of Scotland, he paused and boasted: “We Scots even invented the golf ball.” Harald didn’t miss him: “I wondered why they were so small,” was the Teutonic enfant terrible’s devastating retort. A bullseye, and vintage Harald!

He was also a member of the Liberal Party, despite hailing from Hamburg, the bastion of the Social Democratic Party which advocated for workers.

Harald lived up to his free enterprise/hard-work creed, without being an ideologue.

A gifted Lions cartoonist once drew Harald as the German Kaiser, complete with pickelhaube, and he certainly possessed that authority and organisational ability, in his various roles, but had the capacity to deliver leadership with good humour and concern for others.

He was an integral member of his community, serving on the hospital board and active for many years in the Lutheran Church, and later with the Anglicans.

In 2004 the Loreks left Merredin, moving to Mandurah, to bring them closer to their three girls’ families, including their sons-in-law and, eventually, a coterie of seven grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.

On the coast, Harald continued his involvement in high-level chess matches and fishing for recreation.

A close Lions friend, Graham Bateman, recalled their tussles: “In the years we played he probably only lost half a dozen to me but was always excited when I played well. He was also one of few to gain a 50-year membership medallion for service.”

Anna died a decade ago but Harald continued thereafter with his usual zest and good humour. He died three days before Christmas, after a short illness.

Harald Lorek-Daszkowski

Farmer, businessman, volunteer

Born: Birth Hamburg, 1929

Died: Murdoch, aged 94