Golden Oldie

Roads, Rucks And Recovery

Norm Bethel has lived enough lives for a dozen men. Now in his eighties and calling the Burdekin home, the esteemed New Zealander’s journey has taken him from coaching rugby legends, to long-haul trucking, to miraculously surviving a horror crash that nearly took it all away.

Born across the ditch, Norm grew up between New Zealand’s North and South Islands in a country where “rugby is a passion, not a pastime.” He wasn’t just a fan of the game—he shaped it, mentoring young players who’d go on to become All Blacks. Among them was the late, great Jonah Lomu, a global superstar of the sport. “He used to stay at my house,” Norm says. “I coached him as a teenager. He was something special.”

At 20, in 1967, Norm packed up and crossed the Tasman for one simple reason: “Money. More opportunity.” He started in Darwin, hauling freight down dirt roads all the way to Melbourne. “Three-week round trips. Slept on the roof of the truck. That’s how it was,” he recalls. “Got ripped off early. Learnt quick.”

Norm then moved into meat-works—a job that took him all over the country—working hard by day, partying just as hard by night. “Every night. Wherever you were,” he laughs. “You had to have fun.”

A born entrepreneur, Norm eventually started running his own businesses—transport, construction, development—splitting time between Australia and New Zealand. But in the mid-80s, a health scare nearly ended it all. Two days before a marathon, he went to the doctor for flu meds. “I never left the surgery. Ambulance took me straight out. My heart was about to explode.”

Norm became the first person in the southern hemisphere to receive a plastic aorta. Three months later, he ran another marathon. “Three hours, ten minutes. I was fit.”

After returning to Australia, Norm took on major contracts—including at Abbot Point near Bowen. He fell in love with the area and stuck around, becoming president of the local bowls club. But tragedy struck again. On his way to a meeting, Norm fell asleep at the wheel and crashed at full speed, his car launching off the Bruce Highway and under a bridge.

“I woke up in Townsville Hospital. Broken back. Everything broken. They said I’d never walk again.”

But Norm fought his way back. From full-body casts to walkers, to recovery. “Worked my way through it,” he says. He retired at 75.

These days, you’ll find him at the Home Hill Bowls Club, flipping sausages and laughing with the regulars. “No tension. No egos. Just a good place to be,” he says. He’s come to love the Burdekin’s community spirit. “People say g’day. Shops are busy. They support each other here. It’s a proper town.”

After a lifetime of near-misses, milestones, and marathons, Norm Bethel is still standing—a valuable member of the Burdekin community he now calls home.

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After a lifetime of near-misses, milestones, and marathons, Norm Bethel is still standing—a valuable member of the Burdekin community he now calls home. Photo source: Jacob Casha

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