The Regional Council of Goyder’s 2025 Citizen of the Year for the Eudunda Ward is Peter Bonner, a recognisable face in the local community for his many positions across the town.

Peter arrived at Eudunda in 1992, along with his wife Dot, and two sons, Troy and Paul, and the family took over running the Light Hotel.

“We purchased the Light Hotel and we lobbed here on the 25th of May in 1992,” Peter said.

Originally from Adelaide, Peter explained the he and Dot were waiting for the right opportunity to arise for a move to the country.

“Dot and I always wanted to come to the country and buy a pub, so it turned out just right…and the criteria was that we had to be close to Adelaide, the town had to have good amenities, which they did, the schools and football and all those sorts of things,” Peter said.

“So that’s why we came here and we’re set here now, we won’t be going back to Adelaide!”

Dot and Peter ran the hotel for just shy of 10 years, until 2001.

He said that the biggest achievement to come out of their time in business was the pub social club.

“One of the biggest things I was, and I’m still so proud of was our social club that we had in the pub…I was blessed to have two really good presidents, first off Geoff Schmidt and secondly Geoff Bush, and some of the things we organised were amazing,” Peter said.

The club coordinated buses to watch the football in Adelaide, long weekends and Sunday barbecues at Morgan, as well as trips to Port Vincent and Burra Creek Gorge for camping and yabbying.

Peter said the club did well financially and was able to host excellent Christmas parties with all the children getting presents, saying, “every show we had was really done well.”

The proudest part of the social club for Peter was that they were able to donate a lot of money to local organisations, including to Eudunda Area School, St John’s Ambulance, the local RSL and other local organisations that applied for grant funding.

“Over that nine years, and I don’t know the facts properly, but I guesstimate that we probably would’ve (given) away probably between $40,000 and $50,000 dollars to the community, that’s how buoyant the social club was,” Peter shared.

“That was one of the proudest things I did.”

He also remembered that both he and Dot made lifelong friends through their time at the pub.

“Right from day one when we took the pub over, and she is a lifelong friend now to Dot, is Lylie Gaerth, she used to come in with her husband Peter every Friday and Saturday night and she’d go straight down (to) the kitchen for no money and just help as an assistant, that happened for the whole nine years we were there,” Peter said, sharing how she would never accept any money for her time.

During their second year in town, one of Peter’s sons was playing footy for Eudunda, and hence Peter became involved with the club through sponsorship, and other “bits and pieces” as he describes.

Peter held a seat on the general committee, until his mate Geoff Bush became president, when Peter got the call up to be Bushy’s right-hand man.

“I thoroughly enjoyed being on the committee with them and I think I did 10 or a bit more years with them and I was fortunate enough that they saw fit to make me life member,” Peter shared.

Bushy was also made a life member the year after, and the pair have been good friends ever since.

In 2001, Dot and Peter got out of running the Light Hotel, and Peter went back to his old job as a truck driver before the call of hospitality beckoned the couple again.

“In 2003 or 2004 we took over running the Eudunda Club,” Peter said, sharing how a lot of their supporters from the pub came to support them there as well, including Lylie, who returned to assist Dot in the kitchen again.

While Dot stayed on in the kitchen for some time after, Peter left the club in 2006 and took up work at the oil and gas fields at Moomba in the state’s far north, working two weeks on and two weeks off at a time.

He worked there for what he described as “eight wonderful years” and even worked with his son, Paul, who joined for a time as an OHS officer.

In 2014, Peter retired from his job at Moomba, and now he and Dot spend their time together travelling and visiting their grandchildren.

“I was 64 at that stage, so I took early retirement and Dot and I started caravanning and loved going away to Darwin because she’s got an elder brother up (there), he’s in his 90s now, so we try and go up every year,” Peter shared.

In more recent years, Peter has also supported Dot at the Eudunda Family Heritage Gallery, and been a committee member in the past couple of years, which also included restoring the railway carriage at the Centenary gardens, of which he is currently in the process of installing a custom-made shelter for.

“You’d love to be young forever but now I’m getting a bit older you’ve got to sort of back off a bit in your life – I’m not physically as strong as I used to be,” Peter said.

He said he has also tried his hand at bowls, still supports the local sport when he can as a spectator and timekeeper, and enjoys spending time with his family.

The Leader also asked Peter what motivates him to keep helping out in the community, and he said: “What else are you going to do?’...”

While a humble sentiment, it certainly well-summarises Peter’s contributions to Eudunda, going above and beyond to foster community connections and assist in a number of ways.

Peter said being named Citizen of the Year wasn’t something he ever expected, and was a bit overwhelmed when the call came in, but wanted to thank the community for how they had accepted his family into the town.

“We really appreciate that, and we’re here for the rest of our lives because we ain’t going nowhere,” Peter said.

With Dot being named Citizen of the Year in 2020 also, it is also certainly clear that Eudunda is grateful to have them as locals as well.