PAUL HAYES – A QUEENSLAND TREASURE

They don’t call Paul Hayes ‘The Ferret‘ for nothing.

Paul boasts one of Australia’s largest collections of rugby league memorabilia, and best of all, he shares it with the community at large.

A Foundation Member of the Queensland Rugby League History Committee, Paul’s wealth of jerseys, books, programs, trophies, videos and photos have helped many worthwhile causes, such as The Family of League Foundation. He has been acknowledged in 16 books written about the game, and has done sit-down interviews with authors such as Andrew Webster, Steve Haddan, David Middleton and Greg Mallory.

Paul’s collection is so highly regarded a small part of it will be on display in the Museum of Brisbane’s ‘Precious’ Exhibition, starting in April, 2025 in Brisbane City Hall.

Paul Hayes, now 62, is lucky to be here, after a lifetime of battling health problems.

“I started life behind the blackball,” he says. “That’s the way I like to put it. I was born on Friday the 13th, along with my twin sister, Clare, and our combined weight at birth was 6 pounds. I was 2 pounds.”

Paul was one of five children, with an older sister, and two older brothers, also twins. (Clare passed away in December, 2022). Their mother, Marjorie, a nurse decorated for her services to Australia during the Korean conflict, raised the children on her own from the time Paul was eight, following the break-up of her marriage.

Paul attended St Kieran’s Primary School at Brighton on Brisbane’s northern bayside and then St Flannan’s at Zillmere, before starting secondary school at St James in Fortitude Valley. He moved to Kedron State High in 1979, because of its art program.

“In 1975 Mum noticed I liked drawing, so she enrolled me in an art class run by Lionel Devencron in the old Kodak building in the city,” Hayes says. “He was wonderful, but the chance to improve my skills at Kedron was too good to pass up.”

At the time Kedron was also a renowned rugby league school. Paul, given his medical problems, should not have been playing football of any code. But he managed four games with the Opens in 1980 when they won the Brisbane Secondary Schools title.

“The school had some brilliant footballers,” Hayes said. “Peter Lamb toured France and England with the Australian Schoolboys in 1979-89. The coach, Jim Bowman was very good to me. I played on the wing in games we were expected to win. There was one game against Aspley High which we won 101-0, and I scored the first try in the second half.

“Health issues were the norm for me, but I got on with life. Being teased at school, and outside – I just accepted it. I was born with one leg shorter than the other, so I had to wear a surgical shoe. I also have a cleft palate. It was ‘repaired’ later in life, but after the procedure my speech was still sometimes difficult to understand. I got the nickname ‘Mumbles’, from the old Dick Tracy comic book. I reckon if you can make light of your limitations, then you are accepted more.”

Paul’s passion for rugby league began when his uncle, Tom Orr, took him to a game. Only eight at the time, Paul followed Wynnum-Manly to begin with, after Tom bought him a cushion in Wynnum colours. Paul switched allegiances to Brothers in 1974, and began following the exploits of the likes of Ian Dauth, Tony White and Bob Cock. Paul’s favourite Brothers’ player is Mike Seary, who befriended him, and, on occasions, allowed him to sit on the reserves bench.

Over the years Paul has made strong friendships with many former Australian, State and local footy identities, and he has a particularly close bond with former Australian fullback, Frank Drake and his wife, Jan.

“I tell the older blokes they’re lucky to have me around, because I can remind them of what they did in their younger days,” Hayes said. “Young people should never pass up the opportunity to listen to stories from older people, because once they pass, so do their stories,”

Paul has heard countless stories while ferrying former players to sportsmen’s lunches, grand finals and reunions, and then taking them home, when the stories become even more colourful, particularly from the old Valleys’ boys, and colourful former Queensland and Brothers’ forward, Len Dittmar.

Paul has done many drawings of players and presented it to them without charge. He has sketched music icons like Jimmy Barnes and Joe Cocker, with Barnes sending him a couple of books and a thankyou card after Paul sent him a sketch, requested by his wife.

Word of Paul’s charitable work, and the growth of his historical collection spread far and wide, and in 2008 – Rugby League’s Centenary Year – he became a Foundation Member of the QRL History Committee, chaired by ARL Life Member, Kevin Brasch.

Today he is the Committee’s archivist, responsible for the Historic Collection at QRL headquarters in Castlemaine Street, Milton. When the building was hit by the devastating floods of 2022, Paul had the painstaking job of sorting through damaged items, and deciding which ones to throw out and which ones to keep. Most items were beyond saving, including a 1911 Queensland Cap which had just been restored by the Museum of Brisbane.

“That was heart breaking, but the QRL had been through it before, in 1974 and 2011, when its offices were located at Lang Park (Suncorp Stadium),” Paul said.

Paul was also present when the Men of League Foundation (now Family of League) kicked off in Queensland in 2004.

“It was at the Caxton Hotel, and the likes of Greg Veivers, Rod Morris, Wayne Bennett, Kelly Egan, Mark Murray and Wayne Bennett were there to listen to (director) Peter Simons, who had come up to talk about the way things had been set-up in Sydney,” Hayes recalls.

The only thing that rivals Paul’s love of rugby league is his passion for Australian history, and in particular, Ned Kelly. That passion has extended to Paul becoming a volunteer at the Samford Museum, where he helps with school and senior citizens groups, as well as being part of the operation of the museum’s blacksmith’s shop.

In his constant search for historic items he has come across some gems, including an original landscape painting by famous Australian artist, d’Arcy Doyle. Paul bought the painting at an op shop for $20. Today it would fetch between $8,000 and $10,000.

As valuable as the painting might be, Paul’s most treasured possession is Pat ‘Cocky’ McMahon’s 1948 Australian blazer. Paul and ‘Cocky’ had a close bond,  with Paul often visiting the former flying winger at his Sunnybank home.

“I remember once I took Pat and (Harold) ‘Mick’ Crocker to Ipswich to visit their former Queensland teammate, Harry Griffiths,” Paul says. “When they got together, it was if they had played the game yesterday. In fact, it was the first time the three of them had got together since 1948.”

Paul is not into mass produced memorabilia advertised after Grand Finals, State of Origin games or Test matches. His collection contains only the genuine article.

If he could have any wish granted it would be for Rugby League to have ‘a proper museum’ in Queensland, with modern storage facilities.

“At present, if someone wants to donate something, we can’t always guarantee it will be put on display,” he says. “If we need to store it in the short term, there is very little space at the QRL, so History Committee members are forced to use storage areas at their homes. Those items may as well be in the donor’s garage.

“I don’t know what will happen to the collection I have at my (Albany Creek) home when I die. There are lots of people who love the game as much as me, but no-one I know is willing to take on the storage of so many items, while also guaranteeing they will not be flogged off on eBay.”

I have known Paul since the 1980s when we lived in Tedman Street, Zillmere, and he was a fellow parishioner at St Flannan’s. He is a family friend and a confidant. There’s hardly a week that goes by without Paul and I chatting about something to do with rugby league. He is a great source of information, both in terms of his knowledge of history and as a result of the circles in which he mixes.

About Author