General News
18 August, 2025
Mervyn Schneider celebrates 100 years in style
OAM Merv Schneider turned 100 on July 16 and celebrated with friends and family at the Nhill Bowling Club.
A few days later, he followed this up with a cake and an afternoon tea at the July Wimmera Legacy meeting in Horsham.
As one of the many Australians to serve in World War II, on Wednesday, August 15, he travelled to the Liberator Museum in Werribee to attend a ceremony commemorating the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and see a restored Liberator like the ones he flew in during the war.
An atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima for the first time in human history on August 6, 1945 and signaled the end of WWII.
This year, 2025, is the anniversary of the war that the generation hoped would end all wars.
Merv Schneider was born in Woomelang on July 16, 1925, and moved with his family to Nhill in 1937, the year the Nhill Aeradio building was erected at the aerodrome.
When recalling his school days, he remembers well the day he heard, "Schneider, report to the Headmaster's Office!".
The 16-year-old knew he was in trouble by the tone of the voice.
Two days before, the RAAF had landed in Blackwood's paddock just north of the Nhill school.
When Merv saw the Avro Anson and six Hawker Demons, he and his mate Ian Creek couldn't resist leaping over the fence for a closer look.
The trouble was that Merv was a prefect, and a whole stream of students followed him.
The Truant Officer had been called in to investigate the incident, but after a few questions to Merv, he let him off with a caution.
"Get out of here, Schneider, and behave yourself," he said.
Another of his memories of school days was being hit by his teacher for using his left hand.
"Left-handed students were not tolerated in my days," he said.
He also recalled the day before paper and pencils were used in school, beginning his education with a slate.
"During the Depression, we often saw 'swaggies' on the roads walking from one job to another," he said.
"They'd be hoping for a meal along the way for odd jobs."
After graduating from school, he began work as a mechanic at the local garage and, much to his delight, was often asked to refuel the DC2s and other aircraft that landed at Nhill.
He also took great delight in listening to the live broadcast of the London to Australia air race in 1934.
His first plane ride was in 1936, after which it landed in a paddock in Woomelang, and his father had the job of refuelling it.
"His passion for the air was cemented."
The war began in 1939, and in 1941, the RAAF established a Training Base just across from the Aeradio building at the Nhill aerodrome.
Merv entered the Air Training Corps for 16–18 year olds in 1941.
He joined the RAAF in 1943, training as a Radio Navigator at Somers (Vic), Ballarat, Maryborough, QLD, and Tocumwal (NSW), flying in de Havillands, Rapides, Wacketts, Avro Ansons, and Liberators.
He was assigned to 25 Squadron' City of Perth joining a crew of 11 in a Liberator.
But Merv had Shirley waiting at home for him to return, and as chance would have it, he was due to pass through Nhill on a troop train.
He phoned Shirley and asked if she could be at the station so he could at least see her as they whipped past.
He had written her a letter, placing it in an envelope weighted down with a penny, and planned to throw it out the window.
Meanwhile, Shirley convinced the Station Master to slow the train down, giving Merv and Shirley time to touch hands before the train sped up again, a memory savoured by both of them.
From 1944, they operated out of Truscott (WA), flying to Borneo, the Celebes, and Indonesia.
For eleven months after the war ended, Merv and his crew were given the task of bringing home the POWs and refugees from Singapore and Indonesia.
"I can't begin to describe the condition many of them were in," he said.
"They were suffering dysentery, and berri-berri, and had suffered terribly."
When he finally returned home, Merv married Shirley, the daughter of one of the service policemen stationed at the Nhill RAAF Base.
They were a couple for 81 years and married for 75 and a half of those.
"I got home for my 21st," he said. "And picked up life from there."
He was re-employed at his former garage and trained as an A Grade Engineer.
The garage owner, FJ Williams, was also passionate about aviation and bought first a Moth Minor, then a de Soutter, the latter now proudly on display in the NAHC.
In 1961, Merv learnt to fly and became a member of the Wimmera Aero Club. During Merv's RAAF training days, he recalls flying in a Rapide through heavy fog somewhere near Smeaton in Victoria.
The wheels clipped a stone fence, sending the plane crashing to the ground. Remarkably, all on board survived.
A farmer and his son rushed to the scene and took them to their house, where the crew waited to be returned to their Base.
Merv's only fear was that he would be asked to pay the 5-ver fine for not retracting the radio aerial before landing!
Coincidentally, he met up with the farmer's son at one of the Nhill Airshows and recalled the delicious fruit cake his mother had served them.
A long and happy life is how he described his 100 years.
"I didn't smoke or drink, except for a beer or two during my days in the Air Force," he said.
Life has changed a great deal in his lifetime.
"Mum got the Spanish Flu and Dad had to take her to the doctor in a horse and dray, how things have changed now," he said.
Medicine has advanced, and female teachers no longer have to resign when they marry, among other changes he has seen.
He says it breaks his heart to see the starving in parts of the world now in conflict.
While he has remained in Nhill for most of his life, in 1972 he went to the Antarctic as an engineer, running the powerhouse and tractors used to traverse the ice. He stayed for 15 months.
"Shirley said if I wanted to do it, I should go, and so I went with her blessing," he said.
"It was the most pristine thing I had seen. When you looked at the sky, it was blue like I had never seen before."
During his lifetime, Merv has endeared himself to the Nhill Community and continues to take an active interest in the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre.
He has swapped his wings for wheels now and can still be seen riding his bike around town.
He has been an inspiration throughout his remarkable life, offering leadership to the community, pitching in to help wherever he can, always with good humour and another story.
He is the Legacy partner for May Craig, and between them, they share 204 years of life with many more to come.
Merv was made a foundation member of the Nhill Aviation Heritage Centre in 2008, and was later nominated as a 'Distinguished Life Member' of the Board of the NHAC.
Read More: Nhill