r Raymond William Garrett AFC. AE. My grandfather was born at the turn of the century in 1900 and grew up in Kew in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. He left school at the age of 14 and went to work in the tramway yards to help support his family as it was the start of the war.
He always had a fascination for machinery and his three greatest passions in life were driving, flying and photography. He paid for his flying lessons by taking aerial photographs of Melbourne which were then used by developers and councils to map the progress of the growth of Melbourne.
My Grandfathers Early Days of Flying
In 1923 my grandfather held the British Empire long distance gliding record for 1 hour and 23 minutes performed at Tower Hill in the Victorian western districts. The glider was launched off a ramp using a conveyor belt as a slingshot and a truck to pull it backwards.
He went on to start the Victorian Gliding Club at Benalla and became a life member.
My grandfather was a founding father of QANTAS as he was one of the first pilots to fly the mail route from Longreach through to Juliet Creek and the Northern Territory. He is recognised at both the Longreach Hall of Fame and the QANTAS museum
He then went on the join the Civil Air Force which later became the RAAF as we now know it to be. Reaching the rank of Group Captain and becoming one of the leading pilot trainers during the Second World War.
While based at Darwin his lodgings were located on the opposite side of the field from the command centre and every day they would send a driver over to pick him up.
After a few weeks he decided that this was a waste of manpower and fuel so he decided to build his own motor scooter. He made it out of an old lawn mower engine with a two stage dog clutch gear system and water pipes then even panel beated his own bodywork and then painted it in RAAF colours and stickers. It now sits at the War Memorial in Foster, NSW where it has been fully restored.
This was the sort of resourceful man I knew him to be. One war time flying incident I remember him telling me about was when he flew into Singapore at the end of the War to bring our civilians home and as they took off the some of the Japanese started shooting at them as they had still not heard the news that Japan had surrendered.
After the war he went back into manufacturing of x-ray chemicals and photographic material becoming the head of Ilford Australia and later a director of Ilford UK.
My Grandfather and Politics
It was during this period that a group of local businessman in the Outer Eastern Suburbs persuaded him to run for local politics and he became a member of the local council in the Shire of Doncaster and Templestowe.
My grandfather then went on to join the state government during the Hamer period and became the President Of the Legislative Assembly in Victoria representing the East of Victoria. He also became the life patron of the Baden Powell Association and Victoria Scouts and numerous other organisations.
One of the greatest policies that he pushed through the parliament was the Green Wedge Belt proposal which now allow Melbourne to have a swag of environmental reserves all joining together across the suburbs that support both unique flora and fauna and provides places for people relax and get away from the drudgery of suburbia.
He represented his constituents with dignity and honour and was considered a fair and reasonable politician, one of the true people who represented the people who put him there. He was considered a true gentleman.
My grandfather was always tinkering with machinery and chemicals in his later years and had a magnificent workshop at their holiday house down at McRae, where he would turn wood into bowls and table legs and would make a big batch of moisturiser every year using the washing machine as a mixer. This moisturiser was fantastic when we got sunburnt down at the local beach and the recipe continues to this day in the family.
There are so many more stories about my grandfather that I have learnt over the years but these will have to wait for another time.
One thing I always learnt from my Grandfather was to never give up. Whether it was gliding or flying or racing hill climbs my grandfather would keep going after failure after failure. This continued into his days with Ilford when he was formulating new processing procedures for chemicals and on through his days in parliament where he pushed ahead to see Victoria create the first state parks and green wedge around th
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