BERWICK
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Thursday, 12 January, 2023
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Intersection shut for roadworks
Jack Rae on his property in Narre Warren North in 2011. 60690
Mr Rae was born into agricultural life, spending 70 years in the show Picture: STEWART CHAMBERS industry. 53994
Legend’s legacy By Eleanor Wilson The legacy of Jack Rae OAM is strongly etched in the earth of showgrounds across Melbourne. His name is proudly plastered on pavilion signs at Berwick’s Akoonah Park and Dandenong Showgrounds, and on countless committee honour rolls across Melbourne. Few people can claim such a long affiliation with the show industry as Mr Rae, whose work in the field spanned more than 70 years. He was a founding member and former president of the Victorian Agricultural Societies Association (VASA), a life member and former president of the Berwick and Dandenong Show societies and councillor and life member of the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria (RASV), just to name a few.
Yet for many, Mr Rae was much more than the leadership positions he held in the show world. Those closest to him will tell you Jack was a fair minded and pragmatic, always happy to listen to someone’s case and provide a suitable solution. His character, and life’s work, was built upon a strong trait of benevolence, where a life of dedication to the show industry was for the pure betterment of the community. In tribute to Mr Rae, who passed away on 8 December 2022 at the age of 94, he is Star News’ 2022 Person of the Year. A fourth-generation cattle farmer and member of a Narre Warren North pioneering family, Rae’s progression into the agricultural industry was natural.
“I suppose it was just that I had no desire to do anything else other than milk the cows and work the horses,” he told the Melbourne Royal virtual Museum for its ‘Oral Histories’ series. As local historian and personal friend Neil Lucas recounted for his ‘What’s in a Name’ segment of the Pakenham Gazette, Mr Rae’s presence in the show community goes back to 1937, when nine-year-old Rae began showing dairy cows. “With his brother Fred and sister Thelma, Jack entered a Jersey dairy cow in the Narre Warren North State School Young Farmers Club competition,” Mr Lucas said. “The judge, Jack’s father George, had a difficult choice, there being three of his children amongst the seven competitors.” In the following year Jack began his association with the Berwick Show, walking the cows
from the farm in Narre Warren North to a paddock adjacent to Harkaway Road in Berwick for overnighting before they would be shown at Buchanan Park for competition, Mr Lucas said. Rae left school at 13 years old and almost immediately began full time work on his family’s Narre Warren North farm, walking droves of cattle to Dandenong Showgrounds. He joined the agricultural show society’s committee as an 18-year-old following in the footsteps of his father, remaining there for 70plus years helping to organise each annual show. At national show conferences, so many would approach Mr Rae “just to say hello”, according to Dandenong Show president John Follett. Continued page 6
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