Allen Connell was in familiar territory as the funeral cortege left Healesville.– Kath Gannaway
TIMBER was in Allen Connell’s blood. He lived, loved and breathed it and, to the end, celebrated it.
It was a fitting tribute, organised by his sons, that Allen made his final journey out of Healesville on the back of a low-loader, beautifully polished up for the occasion.
Allen started in the timber industry as a young man working in the family sawmill at Taggerty. He could turn his hand to anything from working with an axe at dizzying heights on a plank, to manipulating a dozer on perilously steep embankments.
Allen Sydney Connell, born in 1929 at Swan Hill, was the third of Marie and Claude Connell’s six children.
He developed his work ethic early milking cows on the family share farm during the war while his father was away at war.
As a 16-year-old at Seymour he worked in a butchers shop – driving himself to work each day. It was only when a local policeman he used to pick up along the way asked him how old he was that he fronted up for a licence.
In 1949 Allen met the love of his life, Jean Andrew. They married in 1951 and completed what might be called a local “love triangle”. “I lived at Buxton, Allen lived at Taggerty and when we married we moved to Marysville to live,” explained Jean.
Jean has fond memories of piling onto the back of a ute – fruit boxes down each side covered with blankets to protect the girl’s evening gowns – and travelling to dances all around the district.
Work and raising a family were the focus of Allen and Jean’s 37 years at Marysville. Allen worked for Marysville sawmill identity Lloyd Gould and later bought his own bulldozer.
“Allen was a good bushman who was not frightened to do anything – he could drive a truck, swing an axe or drive a bulldozer,” said his friend and brother-in-law Ron Andrew.
Mr Andrew said Big River, the Cathedrals and Erica were some of the timber areas Allen worked in but it was around Marysville that he was most at home.
“He knew it like the back of his hand,” he said.
Allen did his bit for the community as a member of the Marysville Lions Club and was also a member of the local football and bowling clubs.
Some 20 years ago the Connells moved to Healesville where Allen continued to work in the industry and for a time leased the sawmill at Chum Creek.
Allen was a good sport, Mr Andrew said, who enjoyed the simple things in life – fishing, a game of golf, football and, like all bushmen, a beer or two.
He was known to produce a good drop of home brew – something he worked hard at and enjoyed sharing with others.
When he retired at 68 Allen went looking for something to fill the gap. No one was surprised when, once again, timber came to mind. “He took up woodwork,” explained Jean who said he turned out some beautiful pieces including redgum coffee tables, walking sticks, pedestals and bingo boxes.
Allen’s old-fashioned values, strong moral code and work ethic, his straight-forward approach, capacity for mateship and for fun, his humour and his love of family were recurring themes as family, friends and work-mates celebrated his life at the funeral service on 29 March.
Allen was diagnosed with cancer eight months ago. He is survived by his wife Jean, children Jennifer, Pauline, Alan, Mark and Dean, 12 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and his sisters, Ethel, Marie and Dorothy.
