Old Colonial spirit alive and well

BILL Hudson has reflected on the wonderful community effort that led to creation of Pioneers Park at Berwick Village.
I had a chat with Bill over lunch and came away with the feeling that it was a privilege to know and to have worked with this man. It’s one of the good things about my job.
Bill is a Berwick businessman, community worker, former councillor and mayor from way back and one of the ‘old school’.
It is well enough known that he and his late wife, Helen, set the scene for the purchase of the entire package of land that was the Berwick Primary School at Peel Street, Berwick Village.
Bill and Helen put up $10,000 each and went to see his old mate George Wilson, who put up another $10,000.
Their friends added to this with a few more $10,000 donations and became known as ‘The Old Colonials’.
Bill says it is time to reveal who they were. His reason for the generous giving was that they did well and received a lot from the community. “It’s our way of giving something back.”
Bill also wanted to thank the many people who contributed.
He said it all went back to 1997 when historical society secretary Audrey Dobson started writing letters to the then Edrington Ward councillor Norma McCausland asking for the old school building and part of the land to be retained for community use.
“Berwick and District Community Association secretary Ross Bradbury also contributed much of his time to the project.”
Bill said people who donated $10,000 packages also included Louise Reeve, Sonia Beaumont, Bob Marshall, Ellis and John Loveridge, Andrew Facey, Terry Herbert, Gordon and Helen Fyfe. George Wilson then went to the Akoonah Park Committee and successfully asked for a $50,000 contribution.
A fundraiser was established and the community took the figure up near a quarter million dollars.
Bill commended Norma McCausland for her persistent lobbying at council level.
“I feel the big public meeting we had in Berwick and the fact that Chamber of Commerce president of the time Bruce Shaw took over as chairman of the fund-raising committee was a big step forward,” Bill said.
Former mayor Kirsty Lottkowitz and Don Hudson organised a fund-raising dinner and there was great interest in the project.
“We always thought we would get the old school building and some of the land, but we initially received enormous opposition from some sections of the council,” he said.
“However, we presented our Bendigo Bank statement to the council and things changed.
“People like Ruth Crofts and Ian Good pushed the fund raising and lobbied Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato.
“Then Mike Tyler moved in and with help from Tammy was able to broker a land swap deal with the State Government that gave us the entire site.
“Who would have believed that we could get the lot.”