William ‘Bill’ Stanley Barker
Born: 21 August 1929
Died: 15 October 2013
FORMER Yarra Ranges businessman, Lillydale shire president and community worker Bill Barker passed away on 15 October 2013, age 84.
Bill spent nearly all of his years in the Yarra Valley, growing up on a farm in Burleigh (now known as Silvan), attending Silvan South State School until grade seven, and Upwey High School to earn his Intermediate Certificate.
With the death of his mother in 1946, and with his father listed as “missing in action, presumed dead” in World War II in Malaya, now Malaysia, Bill and his younger brother and sister moved to the Stanhope Legacy Hostel, Kew.
After a few different jobs, including grape picking in Mildura and working for Australian National Airways (ANA) that later became Ansett Airlines, Bill returned to the Yarra Valley in 1953.
He started working Silvan orchardists R.L. Chapmans & Sons as an orchard hand and stayed with them for 25 years.
On a trip to the Snowy Mountains in 1965, Bill’s heart was won over by a shy, young woman from Goroke, in the Wimmera district.
For nearly two years a long distance (around 400kms) romance blossomed until Bill married his sweetheart Doris Wade and returned with her to Silvan.
Bill always said that his life didn’t start until he met and married Doris and together they raised their family – Julie, Kerry and Glen.
In 1979, at the tender age of 50 years, Bill left R.L. Chapmans and started working as a sales representative for Ramsey & Treganowan, a supplier of agricultural chemicals to farmers, viticulturists, and orchardists.
While Bill had always had a strong work ethic, the two next decades seemed to take that work ethic to a new level, with Bill offering advice and remedies or cures to orchardists and farmers in the greater Yarra Valley.
Bill worked, or was at least available on the home phone, 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year.
Many a family dinner would be interrupted by the phone ringing and Bill being required to diagnose a fruit or berry disease or pest, and prescribing “medicines” to grateful farmers who trusted his advice and appreciated his patience.
From March 1985, Bill was providing this advice and support to customers of Yarra Valley Chemicals (later Yarra Valley Crop Care) – a business he established with Doris and managed until his retirement in 1998.
Bill’s community and public service spirit also saw him involved, in various capacities and offices, in sporting, community and farming associations from 1970 through to the late 1980s.
His contributions included treasurer, secretary and coach of Wandin East Badminton Club juniors and publicity officer for the district association.
He was secretary to the Silvan & District Growers Association, the Wandin East Hall Cooperative Society and the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandeonogs Rural Advisory Committee, and a member of the Rubus Growers Association, the Yarra Valley Market Users, and Wandin Silvan Field Day committees.
From 1983 to 1992 Bill represented the East Riding of the Shire of Lillydale, including a term as president from 1988 to 1989.
During that time he represented the council on a number of bodies, including the Lilydale Sewerage Authority, the Lilydale Citizens’ Advisory & Welfare Service, the Upper Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges Authority and the Monbulk High School Council.
A legacy of his term as shire president was the 22 years he subsequently served as a justice of the peace.
Bill was still witnessing documents for members of the public up until his hospitalisation in September.
In his retirement years, Bill put his energy and time into his garden, and enjoyed sharing it with friends and strangers through an open garden day, and with cuttings, bulbs, and bunches of freshly cut flowers.
Bill is remembered fondly as a kind, generous, humble and thoughtful man, and as a “true gentleman”.
A funeral service for Bill was held on 22 October 2013 at Good Shepherd Ringwood Lutheran Church.
– Tribute by daughter Kerry Barker
