Dad was born in Hornsby on 16th August 1943, the second son to Topsy and Geoff Higson. He was taken home to Chilcott Road, Berrilee where he joined his older brother Linsday, and seven years later a younger sister Frances joined the family. This address happily stayed with him for the next 60 years, rst living in his family home as a child and adolescent, and later in his early married life in a small bro dwelling before building a three bedroom brick veneer for his own family, and then on to the adjoining property at the end of the road to again build, this time a larger house and many sheds as the need arose.
Dad started his school life at Berrilee Public School where he was to make many lifelong friends, some of whom are in attendance today. While in primary school dad spent many hours exploring the bush and creeks surrounding Berrilee with his friends and siblings, and also ventured to nearby Berowra Waters to swim in summer. Work on the family farm also started in these early years.
He then went to Hornsby Boys Technical College and from there Normanhurst Boys. Dad didn’t particularly enjoy his days at high school and was pleased to be able to leave school and explore more practical pursuits.
His first job was poultry farming, rst with Mr Keighran and then with Uncle Bob Bradley in Arcadia. His love of farm machinery became evident early. In his late teens he worked for Chamberlain and then David Brown Tractors. With this job he enjoyed travelling throughout country NSW.
Dad met Mum at a local dance at Dural, in the early 1960’s. They married in 1965 when they were both 21 and settled in Berrilee. He returned to the family citrus orchard to work. He soon after became the milkman for Berrilee, Arcadia and Galston, home delivering seven days a week. During this time, he became a father, Carolyn being born in 1966 and myself in 1968. Mum had the unenviable job of keeping two young children quiet all morning until dad got up and started work again in the afternoon cutting sandstone from the property.
In the early 1970’s dad started his rst business with trucks, carting shale. He moved to earthmoving soon after, purchasing a backhoe which he worked for many years, forming rm friendships with the teams he worked with.
By the 1980’s dad had started working for Glenorie Bus Company performing many roles, including driving and later as an inspector. He again made many friends during this time, and again, many of them are here today. He worked there on and off until his forced retirement in 2002 due to his first stroke.
During the late 1980’s, dad returned to tractor sales, this time working for Harold Shore at Glenorie. By the 1990’s dad returned to the delivery business, distributing smallgoods to deli’s across the Blue Mountains.
Dad had the great pleasure of watching his four grandchildren; Cameron, Courtney, Dale and Annabelle grow to adulthood, and of enjoying his rst great grandchild, Destiny. Dad’s hobby of working with timber grew from making toys for all his grandchildren. He gained great pleasure watching them all play with his creations.
Dad’s other leisure activities included gardening, bushwalking, reading, playing cards, doing puzzles, caravanning and spending time with friends and family. The one thing that dad never stopped enjoying was his love of driving and anything mechanical. He drove professionally in a number of capacities, owned a variety of vehicles and the loss of his licence was the one thing he never really accepted. As many local people here today are well aware, he continued to drive his motor scooter around Galston until only a few weeks ago, allowing him independence, possible at the expense of several near accidents of others, of which he was blissfully unaware.
Beer with mates on upturned milk crates in sheds, more recently became breakfast on a scooter at the local shops, but the constant of good friends, mateship, enjoyment of food and drinks remained continuous throughout dad’s life. In addition to this, a pet dog was never far away, and he enjoyed feeding all the local dogs in Galston, along with the children who owned them, until just last month.
Dad had been a member of Galston Club for 50 years and was a director there for 3. He had been looking forward to celebrating the 50th anniversary of the club tomorrow evening, and will de nitely be there in spirit.
Carolyn and I are deeply grateful for the inuence dad had on us, both of us enjoying many of the pursuits introduced to us by him, such as travelling in Australia, bushwalking, gardening, reading and the love of dogs. Dad taught us both to drive by providing us with many paddock bashers, but this may have been a more successful strategy for myself than Carolyn.
Eulogy by Jo Anne Pierce,
