Date of birth: 1940
Place of birth: Indonesia
Current location: Townsville, Queensland, Australia
Jon (John) Antoine Arie Kreuger, the son of Dutch Nationals Jan and Wilhemina Kreuger was born in Indonesia in 1940. The eldest child in the family, his sister Jenny was born later after the end of World War Two.
His father Jan Kreuger worked as a cartographer in Indonesia, mapping out the roads to native villages within Northern Sumatra, and for the best part of John’s life, he was never at home. As a side interest his father practiced taxidermy on exotic Sumatran specimens supplied by villagers.
At the age of four and the invasion of Indonesia by the Japanese Army, John became a prisoner of war within Sumatra. He remained in a prison camp along with his mother until liberation. His father, who had been captured by Japanese Naval patrols whilst in an attempt to blow up Japanese sea crafts with Australian forces, was sent off to the infamous Changi Prison of Singapore, and then on to Burma to work on the Burma Railway. When the Second World War ended in 1945, John was reunited with his father, but John was now 5 and a half and the damage of a broken child hood bond had been done.
John’s early boy hood memories of Indonesia after the war were of tropical jungles and the abundance of wildlife in Sumatra, and of random exotic birds and small mammals his father would process for his connections within the military. In 1949 Indonesia was handed over to its native people and the Kreuger’s left the Indonesian island of Sumatra for Holland.
It was a quantum leap for a boy of 9 to leave the evergreens of Indonesia for a war-torn Europe in recovery, and establish ties with family in Holland that he had never met. The change in climate and diversity of its wildlife bore nothing of his childhood times in Indonesia. But at the early age of nine his fondest memories of his somewhat short stay in Holland was of the visits to the Leiden Museum and its historical natural history collections. He recalls it was not of the modern standards that one sees today. Natural History had its boom in the Victorian era, and Europe was still emerging from a war that had made a huge cultural impact upon the European continent.
Whilst his father Jan had plans for John to study Forestry so that, one day, they would return to Indonesia to open a coffee or cocoa plantation, it was the guidance of his Grand Father, a vet in Holland, that steered John into the art of taxidermy.
At the age of 12 he was active skinning and mounting the introduced squirrels of North America that had established themselves in the pine plantations of Holland. John remembers he would skin and taxidermy squirrel specimens for the passion and the small financial rewards it gave the family. He recalls that “it was the tails” that gave him the troubles of squirrel mounts. But with determination and the help of a carpenter friend, he devised a skinning board with slots and holes through which he could invert the tails, and thus he was able to overcome the tail skinning problem
One day a man associated with the local Zoo, brought to John’s father a dead Rose Breasted Cockatoo, a rarity in captivity back then, and a native to Australia. Despite Johns efforts to convince his father that he would like to mount the bird, his father Jan completed the task. Little did John know then that this bird was a sign of things to come
The turning point of John’s life came when his father once more declared to his family they were on the move, this time to Australia. The family landed in Townsville Queensland, where upon his father immediately arranged for John to go to Mareeba to the far North of Queensland to learn forestry. Trustingly, off John went, but instead found himself labouring in the fields of this new country, clearing land for a tobacco plantation. John was only 14 years old at this stage, and despite the trusted words of his father to learn forestry, John had other ideas of what he wanted to do in life. After a short stint at both a chicken farm and then an abattoir, John went back to school, studied and received his certificate in Agriculture.
John recalls that at the age of 19 he began experimenting in tanning. He had no idea about pH and softness, but knew the tanning technique of his father’s method could be improved upon after what he had witnessed in the fur tanneries of Holland.
By sheer luck, he met the wife of the local greengrocer boss. An American lady by the name of Susan, she showed an enthusiastic John a copy of “Field and Stream” from the USA. It was inside this publication that John saw an advertisement for a taxidermy correspondence course conducted by the North Western School of Taxidermy. Yearning to learn more of taxidermy and improve upon his father’s standards, he sent his fee. In time John submitted the photos of the work that he had completed under correspondence, and thereafter was pleased to receive his Taxidermy Diploma Certificate, complete with spelling errors.
John was now 20 years old and moving ahead in the field of taxidermy within his new home of Australia. Ironically, Susans father was a taxidermist back in Illinois USA, and when he requested of his daughter to obtain some specific measurement of the Australian Kangaroo John happily sent some field measurements and skulls of Kangaroos to the USA. A friendship was struck and soon John learnt the skills required to produce his own laminated paper head-forms for kangaroo heads, a by-product of the kangaroo industry. They had become hot property amongst the visiting US service men to Australian shores.
His father had always told John, “think big”, and after placing an advertisement in the local newspaper when the local supply of raw kangaroo heads fell short of his market, it attracted the attention of a QLD journalist as to “why”. When he declared in the telephone conversation to the reporter that he needed 10,000 heads for his souvenir venture, “and was prepared to pay a dollar a piece” he no longer needed to pay for advertising. His story hit front page news of the major State newspapers.
Being mindful of new methods and materials has allowed John to keep an open mind on product potential. When a plumber friend in the early 1970 s showed John a new product on the market in the form of two-part polyurethane foam, John knew this product could be utilized in the mass production of artificial head-forms for his souvenir products. His initial attempts with polyurethane ended in failure, but it was not long before his beloved plaster laminating moulds were converted for the use of polyurethane, thanks to yet another new product that he had come across as the release medium, plastic food wrap.
It was the start of the 70s, John invested into a Quebec fleshing machine for his tanning production in an era where most taxidermists had no idea “who” [sic] Quebec was, and began to capitalize the souvenir market by supplying everything from Kangaroo heads on panels with self-made resin eyes, through to Cane toads in character, polished bullock horns on shields, kangaroo foot bottle openers and Kangaroo scrotum money purses.
His introduction to the magazine Wide World of Taxidermy and the man himself, Bob Davis of Florida USA, establishing another sincere relationship. Whilst Bob was in the hub of Game Fishing grounds in Florida, John’s position in Townsville Australia, bordered by the Great Barrier Reef, was a developing fishing destination gaining the attention of Big Game Fishing identities from around the world. Over the decades Bob and John would share the knowledge of marine reproduction techniques using fiberglass, a technique that has now become the norm in Marine reproductions.
From the seventies through to the early 2010s there was not an airport or tourist shop anywhere in Australia that did not handle an item produced by John Kreuger and his company Tru Life Taxidermy. Whilst his profile as a taxidermist may not have been widely known within the standard commercial scene of big game taxidermy or the competition circuits, his souvenir products have found themselves into almost every country on the globe.
His involvement in the taxidermy industry has taken him across the length and breath of Australia, sourcing stocks and materials for many of his unique ventures, or attending Rodeo and Agriculture carnivals with his finished products.
During his time of 70 years as a taxidermist he has produced over a 100,000 novelty Cane toad mounts, physically processed some 65,000 sets of bullock horns for the consumer market, and produced some 30,000 kangaroo heads on shields as souvenirs. He has also serviced a host of Sport fisherman along the length of the Great Barrier Reef on the north east coast of Australia, as well as tanned crocodile leather for the verging crocodile farms of far North Queensland.
His innovative vision and pioneering will to explore new methods and materials has been to the advantage of all modern taxidermists. Furthermore, his willingness to share these new ideas and techniques has made John a respected icon within the Australian Taxidermy Industry.
Today, at age 85, John still lives in Townsville Queensland, along with his wife Lois. His two sons Tony and Jodie along with his daughter also reside in Queensland. Jonh’s younger sister Jenny also lives in Queensland Australia.
