DONALD Roy West – Don or Donny as he was so affectionately called by many, was born in Tamworth on July 10 1939. He was the second child, first boy, born to Cecil and Norma West.
They were already the proud parents of a baby girl born three years earlier, named Margaret. Eleven years after Don’s birth, a new addition to the family came along – a second son, Phillip.
Cec worked in the railway and most of Don’s early childhood was spent living in railway tents and houses in many towns in Northern and Western NSW.
Don’s childhood was a happy childhood – he had a special bond with his dad and his grandad (Pop) and they spent many happy hours fishing (and talking of course) when they lived in or near coastal towns.
By the time Don was ready for High School, the family had settled in Murwillumbah. Cec built a house for his family and they finally had a permanent home.
After High School, Don started work in the Spare Parts Department of the Holden Dealership in Murwillumbah. He played rugby league and joined the Greenmount Surf Life Saving Club, hitchhiking his way up the coast from Murwillumbah to Greenmount and back again after work a couple of times each week for training.
Around the age of 19, Don was ‘up the main drag’ of Coolangatta, hanging out with his mates, like all young fellows did then and still do today, and they just happened to meet some girls from Brisbane that were holidaying at Kirra.
One of those girls, was Lorraine - one thing led to another, a friendship was formed and an unbreakable relationship grew from this. This was the beginning of their great romance that continued on to see them marry in 1961 and see them through for 52 years and 8 months.
But let’s back up a bit, after their engagement in Oct 1960, Don applied for a position in the Spare Parts Department of the Holden Dealership (Barkly Motors) and relocated to Mount Isa to start a new life in February 1961.
He worked hard, saved his money and returned to Brisbane to marry Lorraine in September that year. He took her back out to the ‘wild west’ so that she could live this exciting new life by his side.
Can you imagine what a culture shock this would have been for his new bride? Living all her life in Brisbane and then suddenly being confronted with cattle crossing the main street. I think he must have done a lot of sweet talking to convince her to do this!
By August 1962, Robert Darren – Darren as we all know him as, arrived into their world. Shortly following this, Don was offered the position of Courtesy Officer in the Service Department, which he took on for approximately 12 months before being offered another position in the Dealership – as a Salesman.
In December 1964, Don’s employers Bill Weigh and Frank Aston, took over the Holden Dealership in Cloncurry, and seeing that Don obviously had a lot of potential, they offered him the position of General Manager, which of course, meant relocating his little family to Cloncurry (approximately 75 miles away) on a mostly unsealed road.
Don and Lorraine were given a couple of hours to make a decision on their future. Obviously being the adventurers that they were – they decided to accept the offer and made the move to ‘The Curry’.
In April 1966 Gai was born and their family was now complete. In 1968 Don had a house built on a corner block (opposite the football grounds) and proceeded to plant that many fruit trees and built that many grape trellis’ that he would of probably been able to supply half the town population of that time with fresh fruit!
It was also around this time that Don was offered a Partnership with Bill and Frank. In the early 70’s, Don wrote a letter to Thiess Toyota requesting an interview with the view of becoming a Toyota Dealer. He successfully achieved this and that was the beginning of his long association with Toyota.
In the late 70’s (1978 to be exact), Don was offered the Toyota Commercial franchise in Ayr. This was another challenge for the adventurers, which they accepted with great excitement and this is when the next chapter in their life began in January 1979 – Don West Toyota.
Then, in 1981, Don was appointed the Toyota Passenger vehicle franchise as well. Some of the very first customers from the early days here in the Burdekin have become lifelong friends.
It is a testament to Don, the fact that so many westerners still only buy their vehicles from ‘Don West’ – considering they have to travel to the coast to do this as the business in Cloncurry was sold in 1984. Don and Lorraines’ legacy is still being run today by their children – Darren and Gai.
Don and Lorraine and their family became involved in the Burdekin community from the onset. Don joined the Home Hill Rotary Club (after being a member and past president of the Cloncurry Rotary Club since 1965). He later went on to become President of the Home Hill Club where Don and Lorraine formed some wonderful friendships which have continued to this day.
Don became a member of the Ayr District Hospital Board and was appointed to this position by the Government of the day along with other board members, Roy Dickinson, Dr Bill Taylor, Rosemary Menkens and Dr John Trace.
Don had a great passion for fishing, many family holidays were spent at Karumba and the Gregory River, fishing and camping. When he arrived in the Burdekin, he was thrilled to find so many fishing spots, so close to his home!
This led to his next adventure – the construction of the ‘Opera House’, a creek hut on the spit at Plantation Creek. Don and Lorraine along with their family and friends spent many, weekends at his new home away from home, enjoying plenty of crabs, prawns and fish and perhaps a few drinks.
During this time two of Don and Lorraine’s grandsons were born – Jayson in 1989, followed by Dean in 1991 and he now embarked on another adventure – being a Grampy!
In 1992, Don and Lorraine built a beach house at Brisk Bay south of Bowen after selling his beloved creek hut earlier. Again, many happy memories were made here and new friendships formed.
This became a regular retreat for Don and Lorraine, far enough to get away from the dealership for a break but close enough to still hold the reigns.
In 1996, their third grandson Tyler came along. There were very few occasions when Don & Lorraine were going through Home Hill on their way to the beach that one, two or three little boys didn’t try to get out of kindy, preschool or school to head to the beach with Grampy and Nana! This is where his grandsons discovered their love for fishing & boating.
Don and Lorraine sold the beach house in 2013 when Don was first diagnosed as he decided that he wanted to spend all his time close to his family – which he did, even managing to fit in quite a few fishing trips with his mates whenever he felt well enough.
Now, you know his life story – let me tell you about ‘the man’. There are many ways to describe Don, he was humble, he was a mentor and father figure to many. Lots of people, young and old sought his advice on life, relationships and business. He was honest, he was kind, wise and fair, he was a very sincere friend to many, he was a quiet achiever and a very passionate Queenslander (even though he was born on the wrong side of the border).
One of Don’s most used quotes was – ‘Never forget where you came from’. He had a great concern for others, always making a list to send jokes to friends (mind you, these jokes were mostly supplied to him from emails that Darren and Gai received while supposedly working). Even though he was ill himself, he was always trying to make someone laugh or at least try to cheer them up.
After being diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in May 2013 and being given three to six months, Don decided that waiting for September to come around to celebrate their wedding anniversary was too far away, so he thought it was best to make monthly anniversaries instead of yearly!
This way, he got to fit in an extra eleven anniversaries and celebrated by taking Lorraine and the family to dinner on the ninth of each month. Quite clever wasn’t he? Not sure he was going to make Christmas 2013, he and Lorraine decided that Christmas in July would be a good thing to do – which of course meant that he squeezed in two extra Christmas’ – again, quite clever!
Don and Lorraine had true love, they had a romance and friendship that other people can only be envious of. They were, and still are, incredible role models. Don had an unbreakable bond with his children – Darren and Gai and his three grandsons – Jayson, Dean and Tyler.
On Easter Thursday, Don had to be admitted to hospital in palliative care. The family had planned a seafood lunch at his home on Good Friday, which of course didn’t happen – so, that didn’t matter, they gathered in his hospital room instead and ate prawn sandwiches! The location may have changed, but it didn’t stop them from all being together for Easter.
He came home from hospital on the Tuesday after the Anzac Day long weekend and got to sleep in his own bed with Lorraine for two nights (instead of Lorraine being on a fold out bed beside him in his hospital room). On Thursday, May 1, he passed away quickly at home around lunch time.
He was always smiling. It didn’t matter how much pain he was in – if you looked at him and gave him a smile and a little wave – he would smile and wave right back. Just looking at the photos on the slideshow, everybody would be able to see this – he smiled, and smiled.
There would be very few people that did not agree that Don was truly a ‘True Gentleman’ and he will be sadly missed by many.
