north east regional extra | January 15 - 21, 2020
nemedia.com.au
1.
January 15 - 21, 2020
By BELINDA HARRISON
WITH a father who was such a keen wood cutter that he kept his axe under his bed at the Marist Brothers-run school he attended, it’s no surprise that Fabian Harding and his four siblings have all taken up the sport their father excelled in at one time or another. When Ron Harding left school he studied to become a Christian Brother but he gave that away to work as a wool classer, before turning his hand to logging contracting, purchasing a sawmill and cutting sleepers for the Victorian Railways along the Ovens River. “Dad won a few local championships here in the North East, mainly in the standing block and I remember travelling to competitions from Canberra all the way down to Geelong,” Fabian said at his Wangaratta home. Those ‘few’ wins actually numbered nine North East aggregate championships and Ron, along with other famed axemen such as David Foster, Gary Smith, Laurence and Martin O’Toole, Len Bennett, Gary Hewitt, Tommy Bartel and Jason Wynyard were often revered and celebrated. Ron and wife Margaret raised five children and Fabian noted that it was his mother who was head of the house. “She kept the five of us kids in line,” he said. “Dad was a great saw man and he and my eldest brother, Brendan, won many crosscut events. “My brothers all cut and were excellent axemen, but due to work commitments, they didn’t keep going in the sport as work always comes first.” Fabian attended Galen College until year nine when glandular fever saw him miss most of the year; he intended to repeat at the Wangaratta Technical College but he and the vice-principal agreed that school ‘wasn’t for him’ and he left.
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With an axe and a prayer
◆ IN HIS BLOOD: Fabian Harding’s love of wood chopping comes from his father, Ron, one of the great axemen of the ‘70s and ‘80s. PHOTO: Belinda Harrison
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