Several hundred people attended the funeral service on Saturday (Sept. 15) for Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Frederick Philpott at the Murrindindi-Woodbourne Community Hub.
Local people remembered the former Murrindindi CFA captain, who was one of the first to notify of the local Black Saturday outbreak in 2009, which were found later by authorities to have been caused by fallen electricity lines.
Mourners recalled how for 2½-years Ronnie was in the national spotlight as some investigators and some media incorrectly directed the blame for the fires at Ronnie.
A small statement exonerating Ron Philpott from any blame was issued years after the fires, but no public apology was ever issued to him.
Mourners recalled Ron’s selfless service to the community, and how he courageously faced the unfounded criticisms and accusations.
Celebrant Ann McCormack led the service that included tributes from family members: daughter Liese Johnston, son Trevor Phil-pott, and grand-daughter Anneliese Johnston, as well as the Firefight-ers’ Tribute recited by CFA District 12 Operations Officer Charlie Cleary.
A guard-of-honour was formed as the cortege made its way to Lilydale for a private cremation.
The service commenced with That’ll Be The Day (Buddy Holly), and the lighting of four candles: Grief (Liese), Courage (Trevor), Memory (Peter), and Love (Anneliese).
A picture show, set to the music of Over The Rainbow, celebrated Ron’s life and loves.
It was Michael Guerin who delivered a frank and loving eulogy:
“We are gathered here today not to celebrate the life of a famous, or as they have become recently, infamous politician, nor are we here for some fabulous media star.
“Instead, we are here to honour the memories that we have of a truly famous Australian icon, a little Aussie battler.
“If you wanted to be a battler, when and where would you have been born? You guessed it, Ronald Frederick Philpott was born in Tasmania during the Second World War, on August 29, 1944.
“At the age of only three, for reasons lost in time, he was placed in the care of, and raised by, his grand-mother and aunt.
“He was educated in the Deloraine area and we don’t know if he ever got to high school before he joined the work force as a labourer.
“In 1966, at the age of 22, he married Hermenegilda Angel. Many of us have heard Ronnie speak fondly of the Dragon Lady. Well, she is who he was referring to.
“They had four children (Ronald, Grantley, Liese and Leah) but Dragon Lady left with the kids when they divorced in 1978.
“Ronnie managed to track down his oldest daughter, Liese, years later and they have remained very close ever since.
“That was very lucky for him given the support she and her daughters provided to Ronnie later.
“Soon after the divorce, Ronnie took up with a family friend, Christine Hay. They had three boys, Brad, Trevor and Peter. The latter two boys have also remained close to Ronnie and are his pride and joy on the male side. Ronnie and Christine divorced in 1986.
“At some time during this era, Ronnie had the Tasmanian second head surgically removed and he shifted to the Mainland.
“We believe he lived in the Highlands area for a while, as he often talked about working on a farm there. “He then shifted to Glenburn where we also assume he worked on farms for a few years.
“He finally moved to Horseyard Creek, a suburb of Murrindindi, where he was employed at the then Murrindindi Timber Mill, on Wilhelmina Falls Rd in about 1995. “Initially, Ronnie lived in one of the houses directly opposite the mill but later moved to the current address at the entrance to the Murrin-dindi Reserve.
“He was so respected by the owner, Nils Gunnersen that they became friends.
“Such was the relationship, Nils gave Ronnie a 99-year lease on the property that Ronnie has lived in for 20-odd years.
“In the ‘oughties’, after the Mill shut, Ronnie worked with Tony Mitchell but eventually joined Glen Mc Master, colloquially known as ‘Horace’, and worked as a fencing contractor, hay baler operator and on slashing the roadside verge.
“Hanging up in Ronnie’s lounge is his philosophy on life. ‘Some people dream of success, the rest of us have to get out of bed and work for it!’
“He was just known widely as a willing worker, a respected member of his community and a loving dad and ‘Pop’.
“His love for animals was legendary and his care for the Murrindindi Scenic Reserve made him popular with myriads of campers.
“He was regarded by all who really knew him as an honest, hard-working bloke who didn’t have it easy but didn’t complain.
“Ronnie’s big passion was the Country Fire Authority. He joined the CFA in 1986 at Highlands, then was at Glenburn and finally joined the Murrindindi-Woodbourne Brigade in 1997 and was elected Captain only five years later in 2002.
“When the Brigade was struggling to survive with old equipment in a little tin shed, Ronnie would invite the community to sausage sizzles he had paid for out of his own pocket.
“In a town with a social life as busy as it gets in Murrindindi, he used to get turnouts of anywhere between 40 – 80 people, standing outside around a roaring fire, quietly freezing to death.
“At only one event do I recall that we had the luxury of a Port-a-loo toilet. Unfortunately, a ‘slightly inebriated’ individual, present in the audience here today, ended up falling out of it half clothed, so that was the end of the toilet!
The real pressure came on Feb ruary 7, 2009, that we all now know of as Black Saturday.
“Ronnie lived only a few hundred metres from where the Murrindindi fire broke out, the same fire that ended up destroying Marysville where 40 lives were lost and 73 injured.
“He was the first to call in the fire on the VHF radio and many of us actually heard that call and its content.
“Only two days later, a Detective Superintendent of Police (Paul Hollowood) was reported as categorically stating that the Murrindindi fire was “a deliberate attempt to create a bushfire on a massive scale”.
“The Prime Minister of the day, Kevin Rudd, spoke of ”mass murder”.
“The Homicide squad began an investigation.
“The media went frenetic. Channel 9’s A Current Affair had Ronnie take a lie detector test. “The program’s polygraph ‘expert’ declared the result inconclusive but blamed the volunteer firefighter for failing to sit still during the procedure.
“Ronnie wanted to fly to Sydney to see his son off, but was stopped from leaving the area, such was the ‘buzz from the fuzz’.
“Life for the little Aussie battler became an absolute hell. He was so scared of retribution from devastated victims that his neighbour Stan Banbury used to spend nights sitting in the dark with Ronnie as they listened for intruders on the property.
“He was sure his phone was bugged, he felt he was under constant watch and that his car was being tracked wherever he went.
“Even some of the neighbours thought their phone lines were being bugged.
“The place crawled with ‘Taskforce Phoenix’, with up to 250 police working around the clock in one of the largest police investigations since the (1986) Russell Street bombing.
“One organisation that never commented about Ronnie’s involvement was the Country Fire Authority.
“All credit goes to the CFA for tacitly supporting one of its own in what must have been a very difficult situation.
“The CFA actually awarded Ronald Philpott the National Emergency Medal in 2014.
“Profiling looks simple but it can be a very dangerous exercise if you become fixated on an individual.
“A firie, a loner, known to be near the origin of the fire – Yep! That’s our firebug!
“The fact that he lived in the path of the fire, the fact he spent weeks afterwards going into the Murrindindi reserve feeding the wild animals, the fact that he kept declaring his innocence was not considered by the ‘experts’ as mitigating behaviour. For a very long 2½-years, Ronald Philpott lived with the label of ‘killer firebug’.
“Then, suddenly, out of the blue, and I quote, ‘the veteran firefighter suspected of lighting the Black Saturday blaze that claimed 40 lives was quietly cleared by police’.
“In a massive backflip, police say the Murrindindi fire was not deliberately lit. A year before, they said they had discounted all accidental causes … (and described the killer blaze as “a deliberate attempt to create a bushfire on a massive scale”).
“So what caused the massive backflip, for which no formal apology by either the police or the media was ever made?
“Ronnie told me it was his own legal representatives that eventually tracked down the ‘black ute’ that he had seen on Wilhelmina Falls Rd on that day and the driver of said ute describing the roadside fence as ‘dripping fire’.
“It was then the authorities began to question the possible involvement of the power lines and the cops re-interviewed Ronnie for the fourth time and this time maybe they listened to what he said.
“On December 4, 2015, the Coroner was reported as finding that not only did AusNet’s power assets cause the devastating fire, but he noted how experts, police, and witnesses had found:
• Key evidence had gone missing.
• The power pole design itself was flawed, (failing AusNet’s own standards).
• The risk of the power line failing was foreseeable.
• Following basic procedures should have prevented the disaster.
• AusNet kept no records of repair work completed on the faulty power line, (which altered its design in the days following the disaster).
“Can you imagine the hell that Ronnie Philpott went through for over two long years?
“A little Aussie battler, shunned by a large proportion of the community, fearful of retribution and having to step down from his beloved position as Captain of the local fire Brigade.
“Did he become bitter and twisted as he had every right to be?
“Did he go all-out to seek retribution from those who had wronged him? – That’s not the Ronnie we know!
“There were mates that stuck with him. On the evening the manhunt was declared over, Ronnie was with Horace and a few others in a pub in Yea after a hard day’s work.
“As Ronnie’s redemption was announced over the TV, Horace went up to the juke box, dropped in a few coins and played the famous Billy Joel song, We didn’t start the fire!
“Things eased a bit for Ronnie. He continued to work for Horace and his team, particularly during the hay season where he was regarded as the ‘el maestro’ of the small rectangular baler.
“Ronnie claimed he had fenced most of Victoria at some stage or other and if he hadn’t fenced it, he’d slashed the verge!
“With his trusty Stihl chainsaw, he could drop any sized tree on a pinhead.
“But, quoting Ben Cousins’ abdominal tattoo, made famous by Ned Kelly, ‘Such is Life’.
“After 60 years of smokes and innumerable fires, in 2016, Ronnie was diagnosed with cancer of the lung.
“After four rounds of therapy, including chemo-, radio- and immuno-therapy, the writing was on the wall.
“Ronnie’s final ‘admission’ was initially to Seymour Hospital, but he kicked up such a fuss that we shifted him to where he could be looked after by the dedicated staff that he liked and admired at Yea Hospital, especially Martin Lowe.
“Surrounded by the family he cared for, he passed away in the Yea Hospital, last Saturday morning (Sept. 8)
“There is one individual who clearly stands out for her continued care for Ronnie – his grand-daughter Anneliese, who put her own life on hold for two years to look after her ‘Pop’.
“Ronnie used to drop in from time-to-time on his way home. He’d have a ‘traveller’ sitting on his lap.
“I never had a traveller with Ronnie, ’cause I was already home and I hated the taste of VB.
“But, today, Ronnie, the Hub committee has ensured that we can all have a snag and a traveller with you before your last journey,” Mr Guerin said.

https://issuu.com/mediaflash/docs/lpy_history_philpott