Roy Goslett took a seat on his son’s creation on his 81st birthday. Photo: Oliver Jacques.
Roy Goslett, who turned 81 on Sunday (8 February), says he’s proud to sit on what may well be the sturdiest park bench in Australia.
Last year, Griffith City Council voted to rename the grassed median strip on Ortella Street in honour of the Goslett family, whose members have contributed to the town for more than a century and served their country in several wars.
As part of the tribute, Roy offered to spruce up Goslett Park — and delivered something far more substantial than a lick of paint.
The park now features an eye-catching 70-kilogram steel chair adorned with artwork celebrating the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area.
“I told my son what I wanted and him and his wife designed and built it in Alice Springs,” Roy said.
“I brought it home in pieces and my neighbour Brad Hardwick and his worker welded it all together.
“It’s unique in that its four bolts are the ones that hold railway tracks on – they were cut off, we drilled a hole and put special glue in it and installed it. You could never steal it; the only way to pick it up is to take the whole concrete block with you as it’s all welded together.”
The artwork lasered into the chair features wine bottles, a water wheel, windmills, chooks, pigs, sheep, almond trees, grapes, oranges and wheat — a visual snapshot of the region’s agricultural backbone.
The chair has Griffith-themed artwork lasered into it.
Roy’s maternal grandparents, the Hendersons, moved to Griffith in the 1930s.
His father Lynn Goslett fought in the Second World War, his mother May was in the Land Army and brother John fought in Vietnam.
Roy is determined to make sure the chair made in their honour remains in top condition.
“I’ll come down to paint it every year,” he said.
“I’ve already seen people sit on it when I drive past.”
His son Chris, a former Wade High student, now lives with wife Tanya in Alice Springs, where he runs an engineering plant inside the local prison aimed at helping inmates return to work.
“He’s a talented artist and so is his wife; they do all the designs by computer,” Roy said.
In Griffith, Roy is best known as the former owner of the Central Butchery, a fixture in town for many years.
“The business has changed a lot. In my day, we sold plain pork, beef and lamb. We didn’t sell all the fancy marinades that they do now. Scotch fillet was my favourite cut,” he said.
Despite his age, Roy remains an active golfer — and recently notched up a long-awaited milestone.
“Last Tuesday, I hit my very first hole-in-one at Yenda; it only took me 66 years.”
Roy said the idea for the park chair came from the Curran family, who installed a similar tribute at the Yenda cemetery to mark 100 years of their family in the town.
In recent years, Griffith Council has been naming landmarks after families who have made lasting contributions to the community.
In 2023, three carparks in Railway Street were named after Bob Stevenson, founder of Stevenson’s Blue Metal Quarry; Fred Eardley, a Griffith pioneer who opened the town’s first haberdashery; and Eugene Jasnos, a Polish immigrant shoemaker.
Last year, a walkway bridge on Macedone Road in Yoogali was named in honour of the pioneering Valentini family, recognised for their extensive charity work and contributions to the arts.
