• Marie Rainbow looks back on 80 eventful years of life from her Winnaleah home.
After 25 years as a publican at the Winnaleah Hotel, there’s not much that can surprise Marie Rainbow.
Living much of her life in the North-East, she is well accustomed to the colourful characters of the region’s small towns and has been an active member of the local community.
From the warmth of her Federation style Winnaleah home, she recalled her early years growing up in Ringarooma on her family’s small dairy farm.
She said the view of Winnaleah’s rolling green hills reminds her of the outlook from her childhood home.
“In those days Ringarooma was a bustling town,” she said.
“Each town was fiercely loyal to their own community, they had their football, they had their netball, badminton and tennis.
“We had lots of churches too – you belonged to your church and that was the mainstay of the local community. You also had the local policemen in times of terror.”
Mrs Rainbow left her hometown when she was 12 to attend high school in Launceston, during which time she worked in milk bars and other businesses owned by her aunties.
When her education was complete, she returned to Ringarooma where she worked at the at the Commercial Bank at Ringarooma for about four years.
In 1960 she married her late husband Oliver John Rainbow and they built a life together at Pioneer, which was a thriving mining town in those days.
“The mines were fabulous then - they had three shifts a day and at least 12 men on each shift,” she said.
“We were there with young children and everyone was devoted to whatever sport there was.”
As the industry changed, many miners gravitated towards farming.
Marie said the economics of farming have changed greatly over her lifetime.
“When I was young, you could earn a living out of 30 cows,” she said.
“By the time we’d taken on the pub, you couldn’t make a living out of 50 cows.
“Now [farmers are] battling on with 400 odd cows.
“Our cropping industry has changed to where you grow your crop and have to send it out of your area to have it processed because we lost the factory.”
The Rainbows had two farms, Kiaora (between Pioneer and Winnaleah) and The Martins which came out of the Banca Road near Winnaleah.
The two farms backed onto one another.
In 1973 as sons Stuart and Lester got close to high school age, the Rainbows decided to sell Kiaora and relocate to Winnaleah.
The Winnaleah Hotel was for sale at the time and as they say, the rest is history.
They ran the hotel for five year before leasing it out for several years while they lived in Launceston.
The Rainbows were a sporting family and in support of Lester and Stuart’s football pursuits, the family moved to Launceston in 1978 for five years with their young daughter Sandy in tow.
There they managed the bar at City South Football Club, Mr Rainbow coached football and Marie ran a shop in town.
“Both sons played state football. My husband had always wanted to manage the City South Bar but found it wasn’t quite as much fun when you had to work it instead of drink it,” she laughed.
“City South Football Club at the time was like a small country area and a lot of the people involved there were ex-North‑Easterners.”
The Rainbows returned to Winnaleah in the mid 80s, when they bought Martins back, took the pub lease back on and bought the garage.
“We’ve always been involved in everything that open and shut. You’ve got to learn to give back to your community – that’s how I was raised, and I taught my children the same,” Mrs Rainbow said.
“Both my mum and my husband were on the Council. It was in the days when we had the Ringarooma Council and each town sent their representative which made up the councillors.
“When we amalgamated with Scottsdale, the focus on small areas was lost a bit.”
Mr Rainbow was drafted in his younger days and had been a prominent sportsman but then got sick quite young so Mrs Rainbow took over as the publican and the rest of the family pitched in to keep the family businesses up and running.
“It seemed everyone pitched in, whether it be pumping petrol or milking cows,” she recalled.
“In the pub I learned to listen to other people and learned something new every day.
“Everyone has a story to tell.”
Since Mrs Rainbow first came to Winnaleah, she said the town has become much quieter, losing residents and businesses over the years.
“Things like the darts club and football fade because of the sheer lack of population and the aging community,” she said.
“Above all else we lost our bush nurse. She was invariably a middle-aged lady who would come to live in whatever small town it was and she would stitch you up or send you off to the doctor, or visit you at home if you couldn’t get there.
“They were the sort of people who kept the community together.”
In the late 90s Stuart took the pub over and Lester took the farm over and the garage was sold, so Mrs Rainbow could take a step back.
In her retirement, she has enjoyed sightseeing on trips around Australia but continues to call Winnaleah home.
These days the pace of her life has slowed and at 80 years of age she said she takes much joy in hearing the daily adventures and sporting achievements of her children, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
While she’s been out of the pub for more than two decades, locals still frequent Mrs Rainbow’s house for a chat, only these days they’ve traded the pints of beer for a cup of tea.
This article was first published in the North-Eastern Advertiser on September 16, 2020.
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