Australian Dictionary of Biography

Arthur Dingwall Gorrie (1922–1992), toastmaster, community worker, hobby-shop proprietor, and model-aircraft enthusiast, was born on 19 May 1922 at West End, Brisbane, only child of Queensland-born parents Arthur William (Dingwall) Gorrie, salesman, and his wife Elsie Muriel, née Gordon. Arthur senior started Gorrie Cycle and Sports Depot. He rode with the Valley Amateur Wheelers and also competed successfully in motorcycle trials. Young Arthur attended Milton State School and worked as a shop assistant before beginning full-time duty in the Citizen Military Forces on 22 April 1942; he transferred to the Australian Imperial Force in July 1943. For much of his service in World War II, he performed clerical duties in the troopship Duntroon, rising to staff sergeant. He developed his own photographs on board, contributed to the ship’s newsletters, and was a loader of a four-inch (102 mm) gun.

Discharged on 25 September 1946, Gorrie resumed work as a shop assistant then, about 1950, took over his father’s business and transformed it into a hobby shop. His passion was building and flying model aircraft, and most of his stock catered for this increasingly popular pastime. He wrote about the activity for magazines; founded the Newtown Model Aeronautical Association; publicised the Model Aeronautical Association of Queensland (life member); took part in flying competitions; designed and built powered and glider models; and prospered while doing what he loved. His son Graham recalled chaotic scenes in the cluttered shop: people lighting cigarettes near cans of fuel, papers everywhere, and smoke and noise whenever Arthur demonstrated the operation of a motor for a customer ‘grimly gripping the vibrating aeroplane’ (Gorrie).

On 11 June 1949 at St Augustine’s Church of England, Hamilton, Gorrie had married Marjorie Grace Egan, a typist. The couple and their growing family lived above the shop at 604 Stanley Street, Woolloongabba, in somewhat primitive conditions until 1960 when they moved to St Lucia. They later divorced. A man who aimed to ‘do something with every day,’ (Clayton 1989, 13) Gorrie raised funds for charities, including the Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane. In 1975 he became a toastmaster, later joking: ‘I’ve always been an ear basher’ (Clayton 1989, 13). He presided over the Australian Post-Tel Institute club, achieved the status of ‘Distinguished Toastmaster,’ and in 1987 received a presidential citation award from Toastmasters International.

Public speaking became the focus of Gorrie’s community work. He set out to establish a toastmasters club in every Queensland prison, convinced that imparting the skills of ‘Speechcraft’ to inmates could aid their rehabilitation. Keith Hamburger, director-general of corrective services in Queensland (1988–97), observed that the manner in which Gorrie led meetings created an enjoyable environment in which prisoners gained confidence to speak in public. He arranged for Gorrie to travel at departmental expense to gaols throughout the State, and he came to admire him for his efforts to make the world a better and happier place.

Gorrie was stockily built and had a ready smile. His boyish enthusiasm and amiable nature won him many friends. In 1992 he was awarded the OAM for his community service. Survived by his daughter and three sons, he died of myocardial infarction on 21 June 1992 at Oxley and was cremated with Uniting Church forms. The Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre, Wacol, commemorates him.