OBITUARY
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Robbie Roy Christie
Born: 4 October 1932
Died: 7 October 2007
AN ELEMENT of Healesville folklore died with Robbie Christie.
He was the boy from the bush who personified the larrikin with a big heart; a dying breed of ‘character’ around whom the stories of a Healesville that won’t be seen again are woven.
Those stories were told and retold, with tears and laughter, when Robbie was farewelled last month.
A skilled horseman and jockey, from steeplechases to staircases, much of his achievement and his mischief revolved around the four-legged creatures with whom he had an instinctive connection.
He was just 12 years old when he rode his dad’s horse Rob’s Pet to a win in the District Maiden Handicap at Healesville in 1945 and not much older when his win on Zandra at Oaklands Junction made headlines in the Herald.
Its ‘14-year-old rider’s dashing point-to-point win’ was the headline following the event which drew a crowd of almost 5000 people.
A dare which saw him ride right up to the bar at the Terminus one New Year’s Eve and ask for a beer got him barred for a while and he suffered a similar fate when he rode up the staircase at The Grand Hotel.
Robert Roy Christie was born in Healesville on 4 October 1932.
The youngest of Albert (Rob) and Hilda Christie’s four children, he grew up in Walker’s Lane and went to Healesville State School with brothers Clive and Bill and sister Gwyn.
Like many of his time, Robbie left school at an early age and went to work for his father at the slaughterhouse on Jepp’s Hill.
He had grown up in the family’s main street butcher shop and around sheep and cattle.
“The train would come in and the boys would go down on horses with the dogs and drive the sheep from the station through the main street,” his wife, Val, said.
“That’s how it was even as late at the ‘50s and ‘60s in Healesville.”
Val said Robbie found his niche working with horses.
His father had as many as 60 horses and Robbie used to train them and do all the trackwork.
“He had a great seat and light hands. He could do anything with horses,” she said remembering with a smile one horse in particular named Headache who he taught amazing tricks and another, Glenfern, who won eight consecutive races in Melbourne races.”
Val (McDonald) and Robbie married on 12 May 1953.
“We’d always just known each other,” Val said thinking back to when they first met.
“I grew up in Badger Creek and in those days everybody used to go to the football, the local dances and the parties. It was just a wonderful time.”
Robbie and Val became the proud parents of five sons, John, Glen, twins Garry and Michael, and Darren.
After ill-health forced Robbie to give up his work at the abattoirs at 33, he and Val ran a grocery business in the East End.
But Robbie wasn’t a grocer. Val ended up running the business, Robbie went to work for Dick Richards sawmilling.
He loved the bush, the people and the mateship which went with that sort of job.
Mates, after family, were what mattered to Robbie.
The parties at Christies and the barbecues down the paddock were legendary, as were the trips to Eildon Weir and to Hay which featured strongly in the tributes by long-time friends Jimmy Young and Robbie Heritage.
“He looked forward to the Hay trips more than anything.
“Half of Healesville used to go, up to 20 or more, and they’d stay in shearing sheds, go shooting and just having a great time with the boys,” said Val.
Robbie’s love of horses, dogs and children, his generosity and his good-natured sense of humour, borne out most often in his storytelling, were recurring themes in the testimonials given at a celebration of his life at a packed Healesville Football Club rooms.
He had a special love for ‘Collie’, the perfect collie dog who was never far from his side.
Vicki Higgins was one of many children in the neighbourhood who have wonderful childhood memories of Robbie.
As a girl she would hear Robbie riding home and run outside.
“Vicki loves to tell how Uncle Robbie would canter by and just fling her up on to the back of the horse and ride on,” Val said.
A collie and horse led by Vicki Higgins ahead of the funeral cortege, and a polished saddle on the coffin, created a poignant statement.
Val said Robbie had been a loving husband, a good dad to the boys, and a doting grandad and great grandad.
Great-niece Jessica Dennehy described him as “a courageous man, true ‘til the end.”
Robbie Christie died after a long illness on 7 October 2007.
