Peter O’Brien: From Jervois to Ramsay Street and beyond

International film and TV star Peter O’Brien – think Neighbours, Gossip Girl, Doctor Who, Underbelly – is a true Murraylands man.

He was born at the Murray Bridge hospital, his childhood was spent at Tailem Bend and Jervois, and he has a surprising connection to a local ice cream brand, Freesia.

An icon of the screen and an icon of ice cream are connected…

Like J.P. McGowan, the first Aussie to find fame in Hollywood and the man purported to have invented the silent movie routine of a woman tied to a railway track, Peter started his life in a South Australian railway town.

For J.P., it was Terowie, and for Peter, it was Tailem Bend, where his father worked for the railways.

“Dad was born and raised in Tailem Bend and Mum was born and bred in Jervois,” Peter says.

“I did all my primary education in Tailem Bend – Tailem Primary and the Catholic school there – and then I got a scholarship at Sacred Heart, Adelaide.

“It was a sporting thing.

“(But) every weekend and every holiday, we were back at the farm.”

His family moved from Tailem Bend to the dairy farm in question, which belonged to his mother’s family, due to the instability of his dad’s railway work.

The Ross family had come from the Kanmantoo/Callington area to settle on the land in the early 1900s.

“They were in the original settlement of Jervois, where you’d be given 10 acres and two cows,” Peter says.

“I think Jervois when I was growing up had a population in the town of about seven, but I think there were 250 farms in the area.”

Peter remembers his family’s property as “dairy, pigs, arable”.

“The farm was half Mum’s and half her sister’s,” he said.

“Mum’s sister married a guy, Clarrie Hicks, and there were three boys – Gary, Daryl and Dennis – and we all grew up on the farm.”

The Hicks family also owned the Murray Bridge factory which produced the iconic Freesia ice cream.

One of Peter’s first jobs was as an ice cream delivery driver.

“With the Freesia factory, I was still at school, so I worked there summer times,” he says.

“I had my truck licence – coming from the farm, you have all the licences – so I drove a truck, delivering a refrigerated van, taking ice-cream out to various places all around.

“I also worked in the factory, just packing.

“I was loading ingredients and putting stuff under pallets, wrapping them and sending them off, loading up refrigerated vans.”

Peter also worked at the Jervois community cheese factory.

To unwind, he and his family played a lot of music on the farm, though he was never at risk of being offered a recording contract.

“We used to have dances at the Jervois community hall, once a month, which family members would play in,” he says.

“I was very young, and I was a hack, but I remember playing drums, and I could hold a few chords together on the piano.

“But I was never a headliner, and it was always like, someone was going to the bathroom or ‘Someone’s going to be a bit late. Could you help?’

“My cousins Daryl and Gary were called the Rossicks Rhythm Boys – that was the band.”

Not surprisingly for a country lad, Peter played footy, and he did all right. More than all right.

He’d go on to play for Central Districts and Glenelg, being coached by Graham Cornes.

He briefly crossed paths with another Glenelg player, Gary Sweet, who would also become a famous Aussie actor – but that came later.

In his days on the farm, Peter played footy for Jervois.

When he finally got to rest at night, on the bed he slept in on the verandah at the farm, he imagined travelling to other countries.

“Listening to the trains shunting over in the Tailem Bend yards and listening to the BBC World Service on my Pye transistor radio always made me curious about the rest of the world,” he said.

“The first time I went to London, it wasn’t an alien country to me, because when I got there … I knew all about it.”

To read more of this story, pick up a copy of the autumn 2024 edition of Murraylands Life magazine.

Where to get your copy of Murraylands Life magazine

The winter edition of Murraylands Life magazine will be available at more than 60 newsagents, supermarkets, hotels, service stations, accommodation providers and other outlets around the region from this Friday, June 14.

Find your free copy at Callington, Coonalpyn, Karoonda, Lameroo, Mannum, Monarto, Murray Bridge, Mypolonga, Pinnaroo, Tailem Bend or Wellington; or at selected visitor information centres around South Australia.

Copies may take a few extra days to reach some locations.

If you can’t find a copy at your local pick-up point, let us know by emailing murraylandslife@gmail.com – we’ll circle back to top up supplies as required.

Alternatively, subscribe to Murraylands Life magazine at murraybridgenews.square.site and we’ll post our next four editions direct to you for the cost of postage and handling.

Advertising space is now available in the spring edition, due for publication in September.

• More information: Visit www.murraylands.life or email jane@murraybridge.news.