He was born at Yongala, near Erskine, South Australia on 4th February 1889. His father was a wheelwright who took up farming initially in South Australia and then in Western Australia.

Judith Parnell’s 1982 history of the Shire of Tambellup titled Country Cavalcade records Dick Parnell’s father coming to Western Australia in 1894 where he worked as a wheelwright at Katanning and later Woodanilling. During this period he selected land near the fresh water at Lake Toolbrunup. She stated that...

After clearing 16 hectares with the assistance of his eldest son and building a rough bush shelter, he returned to South Australia for his wife and younger children. They landed in Albany in 1898 and three of the children, the youngest only eight years old, were given the task of driving the cows on the journey from Albany (page 61).

Sam Hancock’s Note: Dick and his younger brother George were among the three children. The Parnell family farm at Toolbrunup was named Holme Park.

Pearl Marshall’s local history of Gnowangerup noted that...

Richard and his elder brother, Edward Venning Parnell (Junior), known as Paddy, were left on the block in the care of an old Aboriginal woman, named Boney, for months while their father returned to South Australia to sell the farm he had there. He returned with the rest of the family and took stock by sea to Albany. From Albany they drove the stock by road to Toolbrunup. A few years later Dick, as he became known, went to Gnowangerup where he worked for the McDonald family.

Sam Hancock’s Note: Pearl Marshall stated that Edward Venning Parnell (Senior) journeyed to Western Australia in 1889. It’s highly likely that Dick Parnell was not left in the care of Boney because he would have been a mere baby. Given this fact, Judith Parnell’s more detailed local history is probably the account to accept.

Sam Hancock’s note: Local historian, Merle Bignell in “The Fruit of the Country. A History of the Shire of Gnowangerup Western Australia” (UWA Press 1977) noted that...One of the first to apply for a Pallinup block was Dick Parnell (page 223).

Dick Parnell was an outstanding horseman, bushman and rifleman who joined the AIF on 28 August 1916 at Blackboy Hill Camp. The Attesting Officer was Captain H.P Mills. He was 27 years 6 months old on enlistment.

His interest in horses continued after the war when he became a prominent breeder of Clydesdale horses, winning numerous awards at the Gnowangerup and other Great Southern agricultural shows.

He embarked on 26 February 1917 at Fremantle WA aboard the TS Morea, was then transferred to the TS Mashobra in Bombay India on 18 March 1917.

In the years following the end of The Great War, Dick met Florence Hilda Oxman when she was employed as a domestic at Mr and Mrs Tom Head’s boarding house (known as Jenna House) in Yougenup Street, Gnowangerup.

They were married in Narrogin on 9 February 1924.

Dick and Florence took up new land in the Pallinup Estate located south of Gnowangerup and worked industriously to develop it into a going business and way of life. Pearl Marshall, in her history of Gnowangerup records that the Parnell family developed, improved and farmed the land until the late 1970s. They named their farm “Floradale”.
 

 

Four children were born during their long marriage – Myrtle Elsie (1925), Noel Edward John (1928), Alfred James (1929) and Margaret (1930). Alfred died at 10 years of age following tonsillectomy surgery at the Gnowangerup Hospital.

Dick continued to work the farm until 83 years of age.

Florence died on 17th August 1978 and Dick on 14th October 1979. Both were buried alongside one another in the Church of England section of the Shire Cemetery at Gnowangerup.

The Town : My Story published in 1993, recounted how Dick Parnell and other men who farmed on the Pallinup Estate, were enthusiastic supporters of the Returned Servicemen’s League (RSL). Pearl Marshall stated that Dick Parnell and others “were fully behind the town’s fundraising efforts for a fitting memorial to those men who had not returned from active service” (p.41). After much deliberation the decision was made to build a larger public hall as a soldiers’ memorial to fallen comrades.