Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Maxwell John Vickers was the third son of John and Eliza Vickers and was born at Forest Range on the 7th
July 1894. His contribution to the Forest Range district has been comprehensively documented by Geoffrey C. Bishop in “Stringybarks to Orchards: A History of Forest Range and Lenswood”. Bishop states that Vickers“ for all of his life was concerned with the advancement and promotion of the apple industry. At 17, Max set out for Victoria by bicycle to look at orchards interstate, and worked on several properties in Victoria and New South Wales until he had sufficient money to take himself and his bicycle to New Zealand. His daughters still hold the cartage note dated March 1913, for transporting his bicycle to Lyttleton, New Zealand at a cost of 8/6d, and also his membership card of the N.Z. Shearers’ and Woolshed Employees
Industrial Union of Workers for 1912
-1913. He worked his way around
New Zealand, and was absent from home for two years.”{Bishop page
120}


Vickers enlisted at the age of 21 in Adelaide on the 30th September 1915, nominating his mother Eliza as next of kin He left Adelaide on board the Afric on the 9th June 1916 and arrived at Southampton on the 24th July. Vickers was admitted to the Military Hospital at Fargo on the 25th September with otitis media [inflammation of the ear], but was able to rejoin his unit, the 25th Army Service Corps on the 14th October. Vickers served as a driver for almost four years in France and was discharged on the 23rd September 1919 due to the cessation of hostilities.
When he returned to Lenswood after the war he married Isabel {Belle} Caldicott. “They purchased the southern part of the parents’ Swamp Road property and moved into the stone house there.”{Bishop page 120} Vickers’ contribution to the development of the apple industry was considerable, “ In 1927 Max {accompanied by J.G. Grasby’s son Lance} made a four month tour of the United States’ fruitgrowing areas, and in 1931, with his wife, toured Japan and China, looking at future prospects for the export of apples to those markets. Outcomes from the United States’ trip were the naming of the orchard Lureland and the introduction of several new berry crops, including the black loganberry…In 1930 Max had two and a half acres of trellised loganberries, from which he harvested 10 tons of fruit. He also made the first commercial planting of walnuts and passionfruit.”{Bishop page 120}
As an orchardist with a view to the future of the apple industry, “During the U.S.A. trip, Max became aware of the great potential of refrigerated storage to the apple industry, and on his return, canvassed local orchardists. This initiative resulted in the formation of the Lenswood Cold Stores Co-operative Ltd., of which he was Chairman of Directors from 1933-1946. In 1939, Max built the first privately-owned cool store {8000 cases} in the district. Throughout these years Frank, Alan {his brothers} and Max packed their own fruit for export.”
{Bishop page 120}
His interests and involvement were wide-ranging. “He was a life member of the Agricultural Bureau of S.A. and of the Lenswood-Forest Range Branch, member of the Onkaparinga District Council for 16 years {Chairman for five}, Justice of the Peace from 1937, Electoral Officer at Forest Range {1920-1946} and was a member of the Oakbank R.S.L., Urrbrae Agricultural High School Council, Executive Member of the Apple and Pear Marketing Board {1940}, Chief Rural
Officer for Manpower and on the War Services Land Settlement Committee.” Max’s daughter Geraldine Kennett says that her father never received due credit for the amount of time he spent over several years coaxing local apple growers into accepting the potential expansion offered by refrigeration. {Interview with Geraldine Kennett 14/2/2011}.

After 1946 “Max, Isabel and their daughters Elbe and Geraldine moved to Tusmore, where Max continued to be actively involved in a range of industry and other matters, and regularly visited South East Asia and New Zealand. Max became R.S.L. Distress Fund {S.A.} Trustee, and was a journalist for the Stock and Station Journal and the S.A. representative for The Pastoral Review. Max died in 1972 aged 77 years”{Bishop page 122.} He was truly a great Australian with a life-long commitment to the nation and the local community.