Diary of a Local – Woodlands

Frank passed away quite suddenly, just a few months ago. But thankfully, many of his memories were recorded back in 2022, when he graciously agreed to be interviewed as part of my research for the book Reflections of Woodlands.

This condensed version of his story is a tribute to Frank and his life in and around Woodlands.

Frank was born in 1940, while his parents, Alberto and Iole, were living and working on their market garden on Herdsman Lake. Alberto had immigrated from Italy in the early 1930s, and Iole in 1939. After their marriage, they settled into a life of hard work, with Iole helping her husband on the land every day. This continued after the arrival of Frank and his younger sister Giovanna, with the children playing in a playpen on the veranda while their parents worked.

One of the great sadnesses of Frank’s childhood was the death of his little sister Giovanna in a car accident in 1943. In those days, people didn’t talk much about such losses and Frank clearly found this difficult. In fact, he didn’t ask questions of his parents about anything.

“They just didn't think about things too much, and … I didn't want to push them,” Frank said.

Thankfully, in 1945, the family was blessed with the birth of Frank’s younger brother Vico.

As Frank grew up, he helped his parents. He vividly recalled the tough, back-breaking work of clearing the more swampy areas of their land by chopping down the bullrushes with a scythe-like tool and cutting and burning the reeds.

In the early years, the Poli family had one horse with a single mouldboard. Frank and his father would run alongside the horse, fertilising and planting in the furrows. Later they got another horse and a double mould board, then a rotary hoe and finally a tractor.

Frank’s parents worked so hard there was little time to socialise. In his early years, Frank felt very keenly the social isolation of coming from a migrant family.

“I never even got to play with the neighbour's kids … I started school and I couldn't speak English,” he ruefully recalled.

“I started off at Wembley Primary, which only went to second class, so I finished up my schooling at Mt Hawthorn Primary. I left at the end of primary. I just couldn't take it anymore.

“And I couldn't turn to my parents if I had problems with arithmetic or whatever it was. All I could think about was worrying all the time. We only had one bus that would pick us up to go to school – the Scarborough Bus Service. And then coming home there was only one bus again and I used to panic that I would miss it.”

Life opened up for Frank when he got a job with Supa Furn Industries in nearby Osborne Park, where he remained working for nearly 35 years doing oxy welding, electric (arc) welding, mechanical drawing and anything else that he was offered.

Frank was lucky in love. He first met his future wife Terry at Scarborough Beach in 1964 and they married in 1966.

“She was a gorgeous woman, honestly, she was,” mused Frank.

“We never argued. Everything fell into place for us all the time.”

Terry and Frank bought their first home in Athel Rd in the newly developed suburb of Woodlands. They later had two daughters who brought them much joy.

“Well, I was lucky. I had great parents, a wonderful, wonderful wife, two lovely daughters and four lovely grandchildren,” Frank reflected in 2022.

But Frank never forgot his connection to the land. Even after he was married, he still helped his father with the physical farming work on weekends. He knew it gave his mum a break as well, and he continued to do this until his parents sold their farmland to developers and, in 1969, relocated to their newly constructed home in Willow Road, Woodlands. Frank and Terry also built in Willow Road a couple of years later.

It was this strong sense of family that helped the Polis to get through Terry’s diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 1978, when their daughters were still in primary school. The girls initially took on some of the household chores and helped Frank to care for their mother for the next 30 years.

For a number of those years, after Alberto died, Frank looked after his mother as well as his wife. He managed Iole’s finances, her paperwork and eventually her personal care until she died in 2013, following the death of his wife Terry the previous year.

People asked him how he managed to take on the care of both his wife and his mother. His response was, “Listen, when you've got someone that you love, you care for them, you look after them. And I was made that way. Nobody taught me how to look after Terry; you pick it up. I picked up things from Silver Chain or picked up things from the doctor. I miss it that much now, it's not funny”.

In his later years, Frank loved his daily walks around Jackadder Lake.

“When I go walking in the mornings, I'm at peace to see those lovely trees that I see on my way. You know, there's one around on Blackbutt Road. And I even said to myself this morning – look at that graceful looking tree there. Such massive, branches on it, you know, and they stretch out and then all the way around. It's good,” he said.

As anyone who met Frank will attest, he also loved chatting to other Woodlands locals on his walks and while out and about running his errands.

A man of Woodlands, a man of hard work, gratitude and dedication to family and home – that was Frank Poli. May he rest well.

Margie Delane, Woodlands, August 2026

Disclaimer: Diary of a Local entries are contributed by members of the public and should not be taken to represent the views of the City of Stirling.