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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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Carolyn
13 years ago

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scott hall
13 years ago

Very sad to hear. Alf was a great man who always loved to help. Working with Alf provided many great memories that I will never forget. My thoughts are with his family and friends. Scott

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

He was born in 1919 and lived in Erskineville. When Alf’s grandmother died his mother took in her own five younger brothers and sisters. When the depression struck they couldn’t afford to pay the rent so they moved to live in a tent at Brighton Beach. They eventually moved back to Erskineville where Alf started working in a butcher shop before school. He left school as soon as he was old enough and became a butcher. Butchers start work pretty early but Alf was up an hour before most butchers to ride his push bike. Then after work he would ride to the velodrome for more practice. He won many road races including Sydney to Wollongong twice. He also became a professional boxer and won twenty professional fights. He met mum at a dance at StGeorges hall in Newtown. After watching him at a boxing match she wisely said she would only marry him if he gave up boxing. They fell in love and married after a short courtship, dad was 19 and mum 18. Tom was born and then Alan. Dad decided to study in the evenings. He did his leaving certificate, then his health inspection certificate part time. By this time the war had started and dad enlisted. With his Health Inspection qualifications he was made a Sergent in a special RAAF unit to fight malaria in New Guinea. One of mum and dads few missfortunes was when my brother Alan died of Diptheria while dad was away. After the war Alf and Les had a boot making business on King Street Newtown. It was a good business and they were doing well. However they lost the lease on the shop and were offered another site further down King Street where a panel beating business was just closing. They made a quick decision and sold their sewing machines and bought an air compressor and tools and opened a panel beating and spray painting business with no experience but with hard work and some good fortune it thrived. Dad bought a house at Rozelle in the early 1950’s. In 1955 Terry became our wonderful brother when Terry’s mum Norma, mum’s sister passed away and mum and dad adopted Terry. I was born in 1956 and I remember that on the weekends we had a constant flow of visitors through the house. As well as relatives and kids we had Dads pigeon racing friends. In the late 1950’s his uncle Bill loaned him the money to buy the site at StPeters where they moved the panel beating business to. He bought a caravan around 1960 and took it down to Easts Beach where he kept it on site at the edge of the lagoon. It was a beautiful location and he was able to indulge one of his passions – fishing. On one occasion he came back from rock fishing with a large barbed fish hook in his hand near the base of his thumb. We went into Kiama but it must have been a public holiday as we couldn’t find a doctor, so we headed back to the caravan. Now I told you he was tough. We couldn’t pull the hook out because of the barbs. He got some whisky and some towels and a razor blade and some pliers and mums smallest needle and thread. I’ll spare you the gory details but I remember holding the pliers while he calmly gave me an anatomy lesson. I was only six years old so I was non the wiser I assumed that all dads operated on themselves. In 1965 we moved from Rozelle to Sans Souci. He joined Ramsgate RSL and took up lawn bowls and became a champion bowler. At Sans Souci we were often out fishing in the morning on weekends. For most people fishing is a form of recreation. For dad it was a mission to catch the most amount of fish in the shortest period of time. There was no idle putting a line out and reading a book. We would drop anchor and he would put one line out for flathead, and another line out for bream, he would supervise and assist everybody with tying hooks and putting on bait, he would check his lines then cast another line out the other side of the boat. If we hadn’t had a bite in another ten minutes he would say time to pull the lines in and try another spot. We always ended up with a feed of fish. Often we would stop a Towra Beach and cook the fish on a portable gas stove for an early lunch. Then back in the boat to go home and dad would quickly change for bowls. I remember dad would always greet us at the door when he came home from work with a big bear hug around us all. After the panel beating business had closed and I started Ozsun he was back at work to help in any way he could. He loved work. He loved to be usefull. He loved mum and his family. You couldn’t wish for a better father. He was a champion at many things but mostly he was a champion bloke.

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

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Denise Jones
13 years ago

I will miss you every day Alfy, you were a real Gentleman. Love Denise

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