Today’s local paper recorded the passing of Egon, who in his working years was the engineer at a big timber mill in Lilydale. Like Egon, that has also lapsed. In my early days at Providence. Egon was a great help to me, making a number of specialised machinery items that allowed me to work in the narrow, 1.5 metre rows. A German by name and appearance, Egon arrived in Tasmania around 1950 when the Hydro Electric Scheme was in full swing and worked in the tunnel connecting the Trevallyn Dam to the power station at Riverside. Recognising the mixed, mostly European, workforce working in the tunnel, I had asked Egon how they all got on, considering that WWII ended only five years earlier. Egon said: “We re-ran WWII about every second day and the fights were very emotionally charged!” Egon was well accepted by the Lilydale community and, on one occasion, the then president of the Lilydale RSL, Snowy Turner, invited Egon to march on Anzac Day. Egon, himself a veteran of WWII, declined the well-meant offer. Auf wiedersehen Egon.
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