By Callum Ludwig
The annual Warburton Reunion was held on Sunday 14 April with attendees coming from near and far to return to their old stomping ground in the Upper Yarra.
Over 150 people attended for lunch at the Upper Yarra RSL and plans are already being devised for the next event in April 2025.
Event organiser Peter Molloy said it was once again a fantastic day.
“This reunion is basically for those of us that grew up in Warburton in the 60s and 70s, but now it’s expanded, some people haven’t seen one another since 1965, and it was great to see the expressions on their faces, they were loving every minute of it,” he said.
“We had a special apology from the famous Diana Trask and that was read out at the reunion and it was met with thunderous applause and we had two guest speakers for the day who were former policeman Tony Aulich and former Millgrove identity Frank Lepore.”
Diana Trask is an Australian singer who was raised in Warburton before winning the Swallow’s Parade television talent quest at the age of 17, going on to tour with The Frank Sinatra Show in Australia before travelling to the US and seeing success as a country singer, including having 18 singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ at the 1985 AFL Grand Final.
Mr Molloy said if everyone had turned up at the event that had wanted to go, there wouldn’t have been a venue in the Valley big enough to cater for them all.
“I had 150 bookings, there was 29 on the waiting list and there was 30 that came last year that did not come this year and on top of that there was 25 cancellations, so had they all turned up there would have been about 230 people,” he said.
“One bloke who turned up, Vinnie Charron, I personally played football with him in 1962 and I haven’t seen him since 1965 which is what reunions are all about.”
Each year, attendees are welcomed to bring along any photos, artifacts or just memories of their time in and around Warburton to the event, with old school photos popular at past reunions.
“When it was all over I sat there and just looked at everyone and thought it’s fantastic to see so many smiling faces, everyone was happy, there was not one cross word,” Mr Molloy said.
“On top of that, I had a show of hands and I said ‘Who’s interested in another reunion next year?’ and up went all the hands, and that just says it all.”
