Roy Picone

Born 12/09/18, Inglewood, Vic.
Died 14/8/2009 Swan Hill , Vic

 

 

Welcome everyone thank you all for attending today to help the family celebrate the life and times of Roy.

Dads journey started when his father Giuseppe migrated to Australia in 1896 from the village of Rinella on the island of Salina, Italy. as a 16 year old Giuseppe worked as a goldminer at Inglewood where he met and married Jane Smith. this union produced 9 children with Roy being the youngest born in September 1918. the family subsequently moved to Spotswood in Melbourne, where Roy went to the local school and then to the Footscray technical college. after college he joined Australian consolidated industries (glass manufacturers) where he served his time as a fitter and turner and mechanic for 5 years. at the outbreak of world war 2

Roy joined the Royal Australian air force and served as a flight Sargent airframes and engines. Roy was based in numerous establishments around Australia and it was whilst at Nhill that he first met his lifelong partner Noreen when she was completing her nursing training at Horsham. Roy was demobilised in 1946 and he and Noreen where married in Hopetoun in 1950 thereby starting their life together in Patchewollock.

I imagine it must have been a daunting time for him when he first met the Grigg/Walch clan, but that’s a whole different story. initially they lived in the bakehouse then in what was their home of over 50 years where they raised 8 children. that was an interesting time, growing up in the Picone household was often noisy, lots of discussion, good natured fights and lots of sporting contests with footy and cricket games to the fore. Roy was smart and left the umpiring and discipline up to mum. although not an overly demonstrable man one thing was for certain Roy loved his kids and was very proud of their achievements.

Roy was actively involved with numerous sporting clubs where his 5 sons and 3 daughters all participated. in the early years they also enjoyed many camping trips to the Murray river with their friends.

Roy became proprietor of the Patchewollock garage which he ran for over 30 years until he was joined by his son andrew. with his technical knowledge Roy was heavily involved with almost every vehicle and piece of farm machinery in the district and as a practical man he was very rarely stumped by a problem, as far as he was concerned there was nothing that couldn’t be fixed. he also built machinery and shearing sheds for many farmers. when television came he manufactured almost all of the 50-foot antenna towers that were required in the area. septic tank pits were also a speciality with hardly a dwelling in the town and surrounds not having some of Roys input at some stage.

Roy loved a beer at the Patche pub after work and he spent many evenings with Geoff, Gordon, Merv, Alan, Johhny, Neil,Matty, Ray and Gary to name just a few of the social group, never did he over imbibe.

Mum and dad were also involved in the community as the unofficial ambulance attendant and driver, many a time our house often resembled a tri-age room. all of this activity was handled with a minimum of fuss and a can-do attitude which was par for the course at that time in the Mallee. mum was eventually recognized as the official bush nursing sister and carried out her duties very diligently.
For many years Roy carried out the duties of the long distance postman delivering mail, bread milk meat and papers between Ouyen, Tempy, Speed, Turrif and Patchewollock – the mail always got through – things like that were important to Roy.

After he retired dad and mum made a number of trips to visit me on the Gold Coast and I know one of his great pleasures was helping me get my boat the white swan seaworthy, together we installed engines, fitted out the boat internally and carried out many welding and woodturning tasks, he has certainly left his imprint on the white swan.

 Ian Picone