As I mentioned last week, this story comes from Hervey Bay, Queensland.
Tracey Simmons is the daughter of a Dhurringile boy and a talented writer. Enjoy.
“Hugh Barclay was a Dhurringile boy.
It was December 1950 when Hugh and his brothers, Jim and Andy, arrived at the grand mansion outside Tatura, part of the first group of 27 boys to live there.
They had travelled for weeks aboard the MV Cheshire from Govan, Scotland, carrying little more than their mother’s memory and the bewilderment of crossing worlds.
Their mother, Elizabeth Johnston Barclay, aged 32, had died the year before. The boys were just 10, nine and seven.
Amid the order and uncertainty of living in a boys’ home, the Dhurringile Boys’ Pipe Band was one of the most cherished community endeavours to emerge at Dhurringile.
For the boys, the band offered more than music.
It offered belonging, purpose and a link to a homeland they had no choice but to leave behind.
Inside the mansion’s cool and deep lower rooms, Jock Lawrie, the Pipe Major, sat in a circle with the boys all holding a chanter.
The boys concentrating as Lawrie’s steady hands demonstrated how to coax melody from wood and breath.
Only after many patient weeks were they allowed to handle the full bagpipes.
For Hugh and Jim, those lessons were lessons in discipline and dignity as much as sound.
The practice paid off.
The Dhurringile band became renowned across the region, performing at local shows and Highland competitions.
They won the under -16 championship three times and, most proudly, played for Queen Elizabeth II on March 5, 1954 — a day Hugh never forgot, when the pride of Scottish heritage met the sunlight of Australian summer.
When Hugh left Dhurringile in 1958, no pipes could travel with him, but he carried his chanter.
It became a quiet relic of identity: small, polished, reliable.
Life beckoned northward. He cut cane in Babinda, picked fruit around Tatura, and later joined Rosella’s production line.
In 1966, he married Elaine in Cairns — the love who steadied the tempo of his life — and trained as an ambulance officer.
Service carried them from Babinda to Ayr, Mary Kathleen, Proston, Gordonvale, and Caloundra, where Hugh oversaw the building of a new ambulance centre, before moving to Beenleigh as regional superintendent.
Two daughters, came, then five grandchildren — a generation spun from endurance.
It was 1976 when fortune turned a circle.
While serving as officer in charge of the ambulance at the Mary Kathleen Uranium Mine, a friend from Mt Isa offered Hugh a set of pipes for $500.
Seventeen years since Dhurringile, out on the red, open plains near the Mary Kathleen Pony Club, he began to play again.
The pipes travelled with the Barclays across Australia on their motorhome adventures.
At happy hour, fellow grey nomads would wave as Hugh led spontaneous parades through the caravan lines.
They returned once more to Tatura for a Dhurringile Boys reunion at Ray Brunton’s home, laughter rising as the “old boys” fumbled through the same tunes that had once carried them into competition glory.
Hugh played at many and varied local community events over the years.
In 2006, the pipes sounded farewell at Elaine’s Aunty Gladys’s funeral.
A decade later, in 2016, they celebrated joy — Hugh played for the huge party gathered in the local church to celebrate Hugh and Elaine’s 50th wedding anniversary.
The last time Hugh played was in 2020 — nearly 68 years after he first learned at Dhurringile.
Now at nearly 85, the pipes still hold a treasured place in his life.
Recently he attended the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Brisbane to celebrate 60 years of marriage, dressed proudly in the Barclay Hunting Tartan, while Elaine dressed in the Ancient Johnston Tartan — Hugh’s mother’s tartan.
In 2026, the legacy of the Dhurringile Boys’ Pipe Band lives on — in music, memory and the resilience of the boys, like Hugh Barclay, who found their way, one tune at a time.
Hugh and Elaine live on the south side of Brisbane and both still bring music to others singing in a choir.”
Marnie now: I thank Tracey for her story and hope you enjoyed it as much as I; and I’m also grateful for your calls with information and questions. Take care, and may it be easy, my friends.
Marnie
Email: towntalk@sheppnews.com.au
Phone: Text or call 0409 317187
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