Final-community Guide 03 04

"Mr Hiley, we'd be dead, we'd be dead." As                 the Year and also became Australian of the Year
Racing             Minister     he    also   established   in 1993. After endearing himself to local
Queensland’s TAB in 1962.                                  residents, the famous sailor died in Noosa in
                                                           1997, survived by his wife Lynne and three
                               One of Australia’s most
                                                           daughters from his first marriage.
                               popular journalists and
                               columnists, Ron Saw and     Bob Ansett and his wife Josie made their first
                               his wife Ellie moved to     visit to Noosa in 1979 and moved here
                               Noosa in the 1980s. His     permanently in 1995. Son of the famous
                               death in 1992 evoked        transport tycoon Sir Reginald Ansett, Bob was
photo: Eric Victor-Perdraut,
courtesy of Belle Magazine
                               scores of obituaries from   schooled in the United States, returning to
colleagues, one recalling that at the Bulletin             Australia in 1965 to start the Budget Rent a
magazine he had maintained the larrikin                    Car System which he propelled into a position
literary tradition of Banjo Paterson, Henry                of market dominance with a turnover of 400
Lawson and Harry Breaker Morant. Ron Saw                                             million dollars a year
worked at one time or another for every                                              before it ran into
legendary newspaper proprietor in Sydney, at                                         financial difficulties
different              times    amazing,     gratifying,                             in 1989 and was
astounding, frustrating and angering them.                                           ultimately       acquired
After suffering a stroke in 1980 his subsequent                                      by Budget America.
series of articles about the experience won him
                                                                                     A champion of small
the Journalist of the Year Award. He also
                                                           business, Bob Ansett spearheaded campaigns
invented (with cartoonist and fellow West
                                                           against the Fringe Benefit Tax and Capital
Australian Paul Rigby) the noble art of Limp
                                                           Gains Tax, encouraged deregulation and
Falling - a sport in which imbibers collapse
                                                           fought hard to change the 'two airline system'
without warning and without spilling a drop.
                                                           in this country - at a time when his was a voice
Ron Saw loved Noosa and the feeling
                                                           in the wilderness.
was mutual.
                                                           He is now a highly regarded and sought after
Jock (Alexander Stuart) Sturrock MBE, the
                                                           speaker at corporate functions and active
skipper in 1962 of Australia’s first America’s
                                                           participant in local community affairs. Despite
Cup challenger, Gretel and the first Aussie to
                                                           this high profile national image, in Noosa Bob
win an Olympic medal in sailing lived in
                                                           Ansett is just another good bloke - even joining
Noosa for the last years of his life. He began
                                                           up with Josie to take on Honorary Rangership
sailing as an eight-year-old and kept on going
                                                           at Sunshine Beach, where their insubordinate
until he was near 80.
                                                           red setters walk their minders when it takes
The first yachtsman in America’s Cup post-war              their fancy.
history to win a race from the Americans, Jock
                                                                                 Arguably the world’s
Sturrock sailed Gretel to a magnificent 47
                                                                                 best contemporary viola
second victory in race two of the 1962
                                                                                 player,      Brett     Dean
Challenge, before losing race four by a mere 26
                                                                                 arrived in Noosa in
seconds, then the closest finish in the history of
                                                                                 2000 after 15 years as a
the Cup. Gretel went down to Weatherly 3-1.
                                                                                 permanent            member
In 1967, he helmed Australia's second
                                                                                 with         the       Berlin
challenger, Dame Pattie, but the yacht was
                                                                                 Philharmonic
always the underdog, losing to Intrepid 4-0.
                                                           Orchestra. Composer, conductor and violist
Jock Sturrock represented Australia in yachting            and     graduate     of      the     Queensland
at four Olympics between 1948 and 1962,                    Conservatorium of Music, he moved here with
winning a bronze medal in the 5.5 metre class              his wife Heather Betts (an accomplished artist)
yacht at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, was                  to concentrate on composing. Brett Dean is
named the inaugural Australian Yachtsman of                now one of the most internationally performed


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