(Tribute on behalf of the late  Eddie Lee’s family)
On a cold dark night at the end of May, 1943, Edwin Lee’s sister Jennifer remembers their father Roy coming into the sleepout, getting Elaine, aged 2 and herself, aged 4, out of bed and putting their coats on so they could take their Mum to the hospital for the impending birth. 

Earlier in her pregnancy their mother had said to Dr. Maxwell she thought she was having twins. His response was, “Don’t be silly; every woman thinks she is having twins.” 

In those days the mother was given a general anaesthetic for the birth, and during the delivery Flo came around to hear someone say, “There’s another one here, but it’s dead.” So when she woke on June 1st., she was expecting to hear that grim news. Instead, she indeed did have healthy twins; June weighed 3½ pounds, and Edwin 7 pounds. 

When they came home there was only one bassinet, so one got to sleep in a drawer from a chest. But Jennifer said, “My main memory was them in the big blue safety cot (like a cage), especially when they were supposed to be having their afternoon sleep. Shrieks of laughter and June doing dances to entertain Edwin, and really, that was how their lives continued — Edwin sitting back, observing and being entertained.”

Jennifer said: “We had no electricity and very limited water in the big drought, with 4 kids under 4½,  but we grew up in a resourceful, loving family, and we learned co-operative behaviour very early on.”

Relationships
Jennifer remembers sharing two particular periods of Edwin’s adult life, in 1960 the first year he came home to start working on the farm when his and Dad’s shouting matches could be followed from long distance while they sorted out a working relationship. 

Then in 1964, for 3 years when Eddie Beacham was teaching at the new Birchip High School. They enjoyed watching Dad’s romance with Frances, their wedding and the birth of Chris. 

Jennifer said: “They kept the same welcoming house at Lochlee that I had grown up in, so that our kids have great memories especially of the family Christmasses. That legacy now lives on and gives me comfort as I grieve for the loss of Edwin as all our family does. We loved you Edwin.”

Spirit of Birchip
In “My Blood’s Country, The spirit of Birchip”, Anne McClelland wrote: “See a cause and fight for it, see a wrong and try to right it, see an opportunity and go for it. This is William Edwin Lee.”

When the book was published, Eddie said, “That’ll do me.”

Eddie loved the Mallee and he loved being a Mallee Farmer. He said he always knew he was going to “come back’’ on the farm, when he went away to boarding school, but he often lamented that unlike his sisters, he never got a university education. 

As a result, he made sure all his children had this opportunity; in fact, there was no choice, until Robbie convinced him that a trade qualification was a suitable equivalent.

Although Eddie didn’t have a university education, a word that was consistently used to describe him after his passing has been “learned”. 

Interests
His interests were broad:  from Bridge to Aboriginal art, to movies and books, to world events, fine dining, exotic foods and travel. 

He was an avid supporter of the Birchip Friends of the Library Art Show, and one of the few males in Birchip who has been a member of Bookclub; and thanks to his children’s choices, he has travelled extensively.

Eddie and Frances’s first overseas trip was with an around-the-world ticket and a large contingent of family and friends to attend Chris and Louise’s wedding in Ireland.

Subsequently Katrina moved to Guernsey and married Charlie, which resulted in an almost annual overseas trip with Frances, various family members or friends.

Guernsey
Eddie loved his visits to Guernsey, visiting the World’s smallest chapel and the neighbouring Islands. Most of all, he loved meeting Trina and Charlie’s friends, and finding out more about Guernsey. 

On one visit, Eddie and John Richmond were asking so many questions about Guernsey, that Charlie went and bought them a book “Facts About Guernsey”, which Charlie thought would solve the problem. However, Charlie said, “It only raised more questions.”

Eddie had some amazing holidays, particularly enjoying the company of Clancy and Theodore, and seeing where they grew up.

Eddie returned to the farm at the end of year 11 at 16 years of age, and by 17, he was secretary of the silo committee.

Community remained at the centre of Eddie (and Frances’s) life. At one point Eddie was concurrently, president of the Football Club, the School Council and the Tennis Club. 

Commitment
Eddie was committed to seeing improvement and growth in the Mallee, and as his sister Jennifer said, “he cared what the legacy for future generations would be”. 

Young people were very special to Eddie. He always wanted to see them do well and to have opportunities to succeed in their chosen field. 

He was instrumental in amalgamating the Birchip Primary School and the Birchip High School into a P-12 SchooI. In 1986, the then Birchip Community Education Complex was formed when the P12 concept was relatively new. 

Amidst some backyard politicking, and grant shuffling, a stadium was also added to the new school, with funding secured as part of the Leisure Centre project.  

He was a member of the School Council for 20 years, and the school council president for 10.

Leisure Centre
The building and development of the Leisure Centre, was one of Eddie’s biggest achievements, and one of his biggest challenges. Many in the community were opposed to the project, and many were outraged at the money that was going to be spent on a sporting facility.  

His, and the committee’s foresight and tenacity to see this project to fruition, are still reaping benefits for sporting clubs today. 

Council
This was also the catalyst for Eddie’s foray into council.  He decided if you were going to make a difference in this town, you needed to be working from within.

Eddie was elected to the Birchip Shire Council in 1987 and served until it was dissolved. He was Birchip’s last Shire President in 1995. 

He went on to become one of the inaugural Councillors of the newly formed Buloke Shire in 1997, and served three terms for the Mallee Ward until 2005. 

Eddie was Buloke’s first Mayor and, in total, completed four terms as Mayor of Buloke. Many Buloke Councillors have credited Eddie as their biggest mentor, saying, “He didn’t only tell us what to do; he showed us.’’

Progressive
Eddie was always progressive in his ideas. He was an early adopter to the theory of climate change, and family members were all part of many tree planting expeditions, as he was with his own father and siblings.

He was an inaugural member of the Mallee Catchment Management Authority and Grampians Wimmera Mallee Advisory Committee and had a major input to the success of the Wimmera Mallee pipeline project which has changed the Mallee.  As a part of the pipeline committee, and as a councillor, he also fought for recreational water for our lakes. 

Diversity
Eddie’s community interests were definitely diverse, as along with sport, education, the agriculture sector, community and council he was a big supporter of the Uniting Church — in the early days as treasurer of the Karyrie Uniting Church to becoming actively involved in the Birchip congregation when Karyrie closed and later becoming President of the wider Karyie Parish. 

Eddie was one of the most positive people you would meet; closely followed by his twin sister, June. Eddie’s positive nature meant he would never declare a drought or admit that the season was done. He would always quote a year when the crop was nearly dead, and then we had 2 inches and the crops made a remarkable recovery. 

When the headers didn’t come out, or we harvested minimal amounts, he was never too fussed, he’d just say “If you farm in the Mallee, you are going to have droughts; it’s part of life.” 

The only time Robbie remembers him getting “down” on the farm was when sheep died, even though one of his favourite quotes was “livestock deadstock’’ (even when his grandkids’ pet lambs died).

Droving sheep was one the jobs on the farm that Eddie loved. He was well known for starting the mob off, getting them to a road where he thought they would be right for a while, and then going for a drive. On his return he would have sheep everywhere. 

On several occasions, there would be some left behind and his response always was, “I only left them for 5 minutes.’’

Among quotes Eddie was renowned for on the farm were, “We are  not working for the stocky, who, of course, was his good friend Peter Jolly”. Eddie was more a long term sheep trader, so when he and Robbie started running stock together and got into feedlotting, Eddie expressed concern that “Joll’’ was going to make too much money if they were turning the stock over in a short time. 

Other quotes for which Eddie was notorious on the farm included, “There is no money in machinery”, and “the harder you work, the luckier you get”. 

Eddie was also passionate, and about many things.  Robbie said, “I was lucky enough to share some of those passions with him, including footy, farming, dogs and horses;  I did miss out on his political side, though.” 

His passion for football began as a player with the Narraport Football Club and extended to becoming a Life Member of the Birchip Football Club. 

He coached the under-13s and -14s from 1978-’82, and later assisted his great friend Leo Lowry, with the under-sixteens. Their belief was that “it’s not how brilliant you are that counts, but how much dedication and determination you have and it was made very clear the idea was to win”. 

He was also a selector, president, and the “Buloke Times” scribe for many years, even reporting on games he hadn’t seen, with a kick by kick description of the game from “Hen’’ Warne.

Eddie loved nothing more than watching his children and grandchildren play sport, and he was very vocal with his support, whether he was barracking for Geelong, Birchip Watchem or any team they played for, and some may say, even a little biased!

Eddie would love to get the opposition to engage in banter. Robbie said, “The first time he met my now in-laws, Marty and Trish, was at a game of footy and on this day it went further than verbal banter. One of the players jumped the fence and confronted him. Nothing came of it, but Marty and Trish were definitely concerned with whom Jo was involved.” 

Horses
Another of Eddie’s passion was horses.

Eddie’s father was by no means pleased when, despite having a worrying overdraft, Eddie and Hayden Hogan purchased Vicky Marie, which was the start of a long association with horses, and horse people. 

For many years, family holidays were spent in Mildura going to the trots, and many of Eddie’s great friends came from his connection to the world of harness racing. 

Eddie loved to tell how, during the 1967 drought, to make ends meet, he went to Rochester to cart hay, leaving Frances and new baby Simone with her mother. Hay carting was paying $100 a week which was considered good money, but it was surpassed with a $1,500 windfall when Vicky Marie won in Melbourne. He stopped carting hay and came home; however, this story seems to have been embellished over the years, because, as it turned out, he had only been hay carting for about two days.

Family
Eddie and Frances had a wonderful life together. They shared a deep commitment and passion for their family, friends and community. They were of a constant support to each other, they challenged each other, but above all else they loved each other deeply, although sometimes this love was rather vocal.

Eddie was also very lucky that mum was a great cook. Many people will recall dinner parties at “Lochlee”, where Frances was running in and out of the kitchen while Ed sat at the end of the table drinking red wine, enjoying conversation that generally ended up in a loud discussion or a heated argument.

Debate
Many people’s recollections of Eddie are about a debate they had with him at the dinner table, whether it was about legalizing marijuana, politics, sport or issues of social justice. This was when he was at his happiest.

One of his greatest attributes was his ability to converse; he would talk to anyone and everyone. Young or old, friends, family and people he had never met before.

The consistent theme that has been resonating in the kind messages the family received following Eddie’s passing was, “He was genuinely in­terested in what you had to say and what you were doing, he asked lots of questions, but never in a nosey way;  he cared about people and their life, where they were now, what they were doing and ‘who they belonged to’.”

He was interested and interesting. 

Fantastic Father
Simone and Robbie concluded by remembering Eddie was a fantastic father, guiding them through life with integrity and staunch support.    

Robbie said, “As a young person he pushed me out of my comfort zones and without this encouragement my life would have been very different.  He encouraged all of us with our education, sport, careers and families; and he made sure we grew up with a well rounded view of the world.”

Eddie was never too worried about failure: “Live and learn” was his motto. 

We will be forever grateful for the upbringing and the life he has forged for us and our community. 

Memories
Eddie’s grandchildren, Jacob Christie and Bill Lee, added some memories of their grandfather, remarking that Eddie’s involvement in their sport had given them some of their greatest memories.  

He rarely missed a game of netball, football or hockey at local level and made the effort to watch when they moved away. 

Jacob said, “He was quick to tell you when you had a good day, but even quicker to tell you when you had a bad day. Our harshest critic, but we always knew our biggest fan. One thing I will never forget is while away at university- every Friday night at 6 p.m. without fail, Eddie would call me to see if I was prepped for the game, and on Sunday to debrief about my performance. Feedback always stayed the same: ‘See ball get ball’.”

The Cats
The Bulls were Eddie’s passion, but his second love was always for Geelong. Much to his dismay, out of 14 grandchildren he only managed to persuade Connor Lee to support them. The grandkids wish Geelong could have won one more premiership, after Frances’s passing; unfortunately it wasn’t to be, as Eddie had promised he would get a tattoo if the Cats won, a sight they were all eager to see.  

Cards and Chess
Eddie’s passion also came through in his cards. He involved the grandkids in this pasttime by teaching them how to play 500. His favourite saying being, “lead ’em like you’ve got them or you will be walking down Bourke Street with the seat out of your pants and your soles out of your shoes”; which, they say, they still don’t quite understand. He was also very good at using scare tactics to get his point across, consistently telling us, “I’ve seen people get shot for table talking.”

As well as cards he also taught them how to play chess, betting all his grandchildren that the first one to beat him would get $50. This bet came to a sudden end when a 16-year-old Harry almost beat him. After that almost defeat Eddie declared he was too old and the bet was off. 

Education
Eddie was always very encouraging of his grandchild-ren’s studies, prioritizing education. He would even offer reimbursements come school presentation night. They always admired Eddie’s intelligence. Clancy was always in awe of how he could recite the poem, “Clancy of the Overflow” word for word. 

Many of them remember Eddie being the first person they spoke to about topics like “Change the Date”, climate change or the introduction of AFL Women’s. Later in life, they have reflected on this and feel very lucky to have such a strong progressive voice from so early on in their lives.  Many of them were lucky enough to have travelled overseas with Eddie, and will remember this fondly. 

Best and Worst
Some of their best and worst memories are with Eddie on the farm. They always remember having ponies and Eddie teaching them how to ride with Snowy, Toffee and Snowball.  

Mikaela and Laura still remember their first driving lesson in the ute. With Eddie’s patience already wearing thin after multiple stalls, his day was about to get much worse, Laura driving into the mud and bogging the ute. With sheep going everywhere and Eddie yelling, “Bloody hell, girls, start running!”. Safe to say both Laura and Mikaela still can’t drive manuals. 

Although a lot of the grandchildren’s food memories are to do with Frances’s home cooking, they also remembered Eddie’s love for food and wine, and noted that they’d experienced many new cultural food and dining experiences with Eddie, both in Melbourne and abroad.  

Chocolate
Another great love for Eddie was chocolate, with multiple blocks always being found in the bottom draw, and taken to dinner whenever he went visiting. 

One of the more recent memories of Theodore’s, was when Eddie bought him a personalized chocolate bar from the Willy Wonka Play. After storing it in the fridge safely at night, to Theodore’s shock, the chocolate had disappeared from the fridge by the morning, to which Eddie exclaimed, “The mice must’ve got it.”  It took until later in life for Eddie to admit to no one’s surprise that he had eaten Theodore’s chocolate.

The boys said, “We will always treasure these memories fondly and remember our time at Lochlee, playing cards, interrupting Eddie’s sky racing to watch Nickelodeon, and robust and educational conversations. He will always be Eddie to us, a grandfather we loved very much, and one we know, loved all of us.”

Ten Things
In summing Edwin up, his twin sister encapsulated it at number ten of her recount of ten things she loved about Edwin, when she said, “I loved to be in Edwin’s company because with Edwin there was always possibilities. 

“I remember when we were children, Edwin and I would go with Dad sometimes to Donald or to St. Arnaud and, while there were never any treats, there was always a sense of release, that things could happen. With Edwin, that was magnified, because things often did happen. 

“We might meet someone interesting; we might see something out of the ordinary, we might eat something delicious, the team might win, the horse might win. 

“Always, a possibility, and I would like to think that we will all continue Edwin’s tradition, of pursuing the possibilities that are just around the corner.”