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GEOFF Stokes is a man about town. Best known for his contribution to the Kooweerup RSL and Kooweerup Township Committee, the man in the know tells Melissa Meehan what drives him to do so much for his adopted community.
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“We were living in Frankston and thought we’d like somewhere more rural, Kooweerup is just lovely”.
“Two seconds later and I wouldn’t have met Olive, she’s my sweetheart”.
HE came to Australia in 1970, but it took more than 30 years for Geoff Stokes and his wife Olive to find Kooweerup.
Arriving on the swamp in 2003, Geoff is now one of the most recognisable faces in town, with people walking up to him in the street, sometimes knocking on the door, to ask or tell him about going-ons in the town.
“I’ve been on the township committee for six years, I think its important to have a committee in the town to help it progress,” Geoff said.
“We’ve fought for a bypass and gas and we won’t stop until we see these things happening.”
When he first came to town, he joined the Kooweerup RSL.
“There’s always mates in the army, even though I was from the British Army – it doesn’t matter where you come from, they welcome you with open arms.”
Soon enough he was getting his hands dirty, serving as a secretary for the RSL for a year.
“They needed someone who could use a computer so I was it, the same thing went for the Township Committee,” he said.
And there is no slowing the man down.
Even faced with a battle against esophageal cancer – including an esophagectomy and partial gastrectomy in 2010 – there was no stopping him.
“I had a problem over many years with an inflamed esophagus, I think it was caused by smoking, but I stopped in 1977,” he said.
“I think it was more scary for people that I told than it was for me – I guess it was just something I knew I had to beat.”
In 1970, Geoff and the love of his life Olive emigrated to Australia from the United Kingdom.
He came with a job ready to start as a mechanic making industrial valves.
“I was really fed up with the job I had and one day this guy from Australia comes in, he tells me about what a great life he had back home and mentioned there was a vacancy there with the experience I had,” Geoff said.
Geoff described his experience in Australia as “out of this world”.
“It was so different to Australia now, and back then it was so different to the UK,” Geoff said.
“We had to start all over again, but she lived in Perth and a cousin in Alice Springs but they weren’t as close as we thought it was – we just thought we could pop over for a weekend.”
But soon enough the couple made close friends and started making their home in Templestowe, where Geoff was able to join the local theatre company and music society as an outlet from work.
He said he found Australians were genuinely friendly when he first came to our big brown land and was often surprised by the openness of people.
“People would see you in the street, strangers, and they would talk to you,” he said.
“It was so different in the UK, the class structure and all that.”
In 1983 Geoff and Olive, along with their two children Catherine and Jonathon moved to Smiths Gully, near St Andrews. It was just one of 10 moves the couple had during their time in Australia.
Including a road trip around Australia to Perth, where they stopped for six years before continuing the rest of the circuit on their way back to Victoria.
They lived in Altona Meadows, Frankston before retiring to Kooweerup in 2003.
Olive is described by Geoff as his “sweetheart” and he is well aware that two seconds were the difference between them meeting each other and them going their separate ways.
Instead of going to the local dance as he usually would, Geoff and some friends decided to go to the speedway, and despite wanting to go to the dance afterwards they weren’t dressed appropriately so they caught the train home.
“They blew the whistle, green flags were waved and the doors opened and closed and we noticed two girls running towards it,’ he said.
“We opened the doors and physically pulled them in as the train was rolling – it was Olive and her sister.”
Always up for a chat, Geoff started a conversation with the young ladies and asked them which bus they had to catch and – despite it being in the opposite direction – he said it was the same route as him and escorted them home.
Olive invited him in for tea, and the rest, they say, is history.
The two are proud parents to Catherine and Jonathon and four grandchildren, with a great-grandchild on the way.
Born in Bradmore, Wolverhampton, England in 1932, Geoff’s memory holds a wealth of knowledge about growing up in the UK and his time in Australia.
He still has the coronation mug presented to him at school in 1937, survived the air raids in World War II (while his memory of it isn’t overly dramatic), he was run over by a car when he was seven, taught Sunday school for four years, studied mechanical engineering at university, served (as a National Serviceman) in the UK, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Germany, and held lead roles in grand opera and musical comedy.
But that’s not all. He’s a master scuba diver, played soccer until he was 32, toured Europe on a Lambretta Scooter with Olive in 1959, had a business trip around the world travelling first class, has taught seniors how to use the internet, travelled 30 countries, and was a crew member of a tall ship in a leg of the 1988 Australian Bi-Centennial re-enactment.
If you think there is nothing left to do – you would be incorrect.
Geoff hopes to tandem skydive on his 80th birthday this year.
There is no slowing this man down.
