Helmut and I raise our glasses in June 2011 at the Lake Eacham Hotel,Yungaburra's only Husbands' Daycare Centre
I always visit bookshops, so when I toured the Atherton Tableland in Far North Queensland in mid-2011, I called in at the Spencer & Murphy Booksellers in Yungaburra which was minded by Helmut Brix, a fellow-German who'd come to Australia and also passed through Bonegilla in 1961, four years before me.
"BRIX Helmut Franz born 9 December 1938 - German - travelled per MIKLM departing in 1961 under Australian German Migration Agreement" Perhaps I ought to request a full copy of his immigration papers in celebration of our short and accidental meeting and ensuing friendship which lasted for several years. And so I did - click here. |
Being almost seven years older than me, Helmut immediately settled in Melbourne and finished up with a wife, children, house, everything - or, as Zorba the Greek called it, "the full catastrophe".
Helmut in his former career as Camera repairman
Fifty years later, he said goodbye to his grown-up kids, told his wife he needed time to himself, and travelled north. In Yungaburra he found friends and a free flat in exchange for looking after several more, and I admired (and envied) him for the ease with which he had escaped from half a century of domesticity. Lotus-eating in Bali or Bora Bora next?
A romantic at heart, this one got him in:
"Liebes Laube" means "Love Shack"
However, we all seem to be creatures of habit because a few months on he told me he had bought a house at 17 Currawong Avenue, Yungaburra and turned domestic again! Which is where the story should end, except I just GOOGLEd him and read that he escaped again, this time for good:
Rest in Peace, my friend, and I'm glad we had those beers together. And I'll stay off GOOGLE for a bit as this has been enough bad news for a day.
