Robin Goodall (right) did the honours at the Otira shearing shed on Saturday, launching "Home Paddock Stories. Phillip Island and Beyond" for his old school mate and lifelong friend Laurie Dixon (seated).
Laurie Dixon at Saturday's book launch attended by over 100 people, with his wife Jenni, daughters Robyn, Narelle and Jane, and five of his nine grandchildren.
Winding back the clock! At Saturday's book launch are former neighbours, school friends and footy team mate of Laurie Dixon, who all enjoyed the walk back through time. From left: Bob Watson, Julie Box, Cefn Price, Terry Watchorn, Gerald Jeffery, Win Jeffery and Phil Price.
It was a great meeting of the island's clans in the famous Otira shearing shed at Ventnor on Saturday, for the launch of the much-anticipated book "Home Paddock Stories. Phillip Island and Beyond", by Laurie Dixon.
Old friends and new came from near and far, to celebrate this special occasion. Many bore the surnames of the island's early settlers.
Highlights of the afternoon included the launch of the book by Laurie's school friend and lifelong mate Robin Goodall; oration of a poem by Michael Cleeland, written especially for the occasion; and Cameron Sanders, a descendant of the Cleeland and Sanders pioneering families, and Quinn Kellock entertaining all present on their euphoniums.
Cameron's euphonium was gifted to him by Laurie. It was the one Laurie used as a member of the old Phillip Island Brass Band.
Raconteur
Laurie Dixon was born in 1938, in the hospital gifted to the island community by his grandparents William and Lucy Thompson, after whom the Cowes main street is named ... and twenty minutes before the arrival of his best friend through life, twin brother John.
Prompted by the diaries he has meticulously kept since 1952 to the present day, his book is filled with personal anecdotes and recollections, which reflect an irrepressible spirit of adventure, strong work ethic, and a deep connection to family, friends and rural life.
A raconteur who loves to spin a yarn, in "Home Paddock Stories. Phillip Island and Beyond" Laurie has chronicled a life spanning eight decades, documenting the day to day activities and happenings of family and community life; in so doing also providing a unique insight into Phillip Island's social history and development.
Laurie's writings in his book are laced with fun and humour, which were the hallmark of life in the small and tight knit rural community into which he was born: school days at Ventnor where the teacher occasionally failed to arrive; the island's football fields where lifelong friendships were made; dodging local Fisheries inspectors while out hunting mutton birds; and regular marches down Thompson
Avenue as a member of the Phillip Island brass band.
A gun shearer in his heyday, Laurie worked in shearing sheds near and far. And at various times worked on the rebuilding of the old racetrack in time for the first Phillip Island Motorcycle GP in 1989; construction of the Nobbies Sea Life Centre; ran a hydroponics family herb farm for 11 years; and in the 1970s constructed the Cowes East beach rock wall as part of a team of three.
At one point he found himself pictured on the front page of metropolitan and local newspapers, helping his house guest, Queensland shark hunter Vic Hyslop, who landed a record-breaking white pointer off the Nobbies, to bring the 2.4 tonne monster onto the beach in Cowes. This is just one of the quirky tales to be found in these pages, along with travel adventures in the Australian outback and holidays across three continents in his later years.
"Home Paddock Stories: Phillip Island and Beyond", is 198 pages of great reading and is available for purchase at $40 per copy. Email: homepaddockld@gmail.com
READ MORE: An ode to the Dixon brothers
