Neville Goodwin: “Old school operator, wheeler and dealer, unorthodox, colourful character …” By Catherine Watson
IT WAS standing room only at the Wonthaggi Town Hall on Wednesday as Neville Goodwin’s family, friends and colleagues from many walks of life gathered to celebrate his colourful life.
Among them were councillors and MPs past and present, road workers, CEOs, pensioners, Rotarians, business leaders, Vietnam vets and a few distinguished gentlemen from the Honoured Society of Calabria. They were easy to pick in a town like Wonthaggi because they wore black.
Despite his achievements – four-time Bass Coast Mayor, Bass Coast Citizen of the Year, Paul Harris Fellow – Neville’s do was not a solemn occasion. He was an intriguing blend of a conservative and a knockabout bloke who could always laugh at himself. Even in the formal photos, there's always the flicker of a grin.
IT WAS standing room only at the Wonthaggi Town Hall on Wednesday as Neville Goodwin’s family, friends and colleagues from many walks of life gathered to celebrate his colourful life.
Among them were councillors and MPs past and present, road workers, CEOs, pensioners, Rotarians, business leaders, Vietnam vets and a few distinguished gentlemen from the Honoured Society of Calabria. They were easy to pick in a town like Wonthaggi because they wore black.
Despite his achievements – four-time Bass Coast Mayor, Bass Coast Citizen of the Year, Paul Harris Fellow – Neville’s do was not a solemn occasion. He was an intriguing blend of a conservative and a knockabout bloke who could always laugh at himself. Even in the formal photos, there's always the flicker of a grin.
“Old school operator, wheeler and dealer, unorthodox, a colourful character, funny, a lovely man …” The stories flowed.
Not all of Neville’s acquaintances were pillars of society but they all had fond memories of a man known to many as Nifty Nev. As Bass Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead has noted, people would turn to Neville when they needed help. “Who do we call now when we need something done?”
Frank Angarane set the tone early. He and Neville once attended a funeral after which they agreed there had been a fair bit of exaggeration about the character of the deceased. They agreed that whoever outlived the other would tell it as it was, “no bullshit”.
The two men met in the early 1990s when Frank went to work for the Bass Shire Council, based in Archies Creek. Neville was a councillor, Frank a staff member.
“It didn’t take long to connect with Nev because he was always interested in what was going on. He was an old school operator and to be quite honest that made him more endearing. He loved a free lunch and the unhealthier it was the more he liked it. Nev would turn up his eyes at the sight of a salad or fruit. If he was ever AWOL there was a fair chance he would be out of view somewhere like a naughty school boy having a fag.
“It’s fair to say that he didn’t live the healthiest of lifestyles but he was always happy and being happy is hard to argue with.”
Neville’s son Wayne detailed Neville’s early working life: apprentice cabinet maker, TV delivery man, roller door salesman, builder, sharemilker …
In 1981 Neville and Lynne bought a farm at Woodleigh and started milking 100-120 cows. The first year they got hit by a drought, the second year the farm was flooded. “It was a challenge for any farmer let alone an inexperienced one.”
Wayne noted that Neville's timing was often a bit off. Friends joked that he left a trail of closures in his wake. The Loch Football Club and Bass Valley Football League both folded while he was in charge. In 1992 he was elected to the Bass Shire Council and two years later then Liberal premier Jeff Kennett sacked all the councils in a round of forced amalgamations.
This time round, it worked out okay for Neville. He’d joined the Liberal Party and when the State Government was handing out jobs for the boys, he scored a job as a Commissioner of the new Wyndham Council, on the other side of Melbourne.
It was the start of a new chapter in his working life. Once the new councils were elected, he moved on to work as electorate officer for Liberal Bass MP Ken Smith which is when then Bass Coast Shire Council CEO Alan Bawden first got to know him.
“If someone came in with a problem that related to the council Neville would get on the phone to me. ‘Alan, here’s the problem, how can we fix it?’ He liked to fix things, either as mayor or as a Rotarian. He loved helping people, he loved talking to them, he loved getting them together.”
Neville was elected to the council in 2003. In his second year, he was elected mayor, serving four consecutive terms. Alan says it was an exceptional period of continuity for the council.
"In the life of a mayor it takes a year to get to know the role and the people before you can become effective. He was looked to across the region for his leadership and served as chair of the Gippsland Local Government Network.”
Despite his growing influence, he remained a hands-on mayor who liked to fix things personally. “He never sat still. He liked to be out and about. We got a letter of complaint once, I can’t remember what it was about but he took exception to it. He got in the car and went to see the person who wrote it. He knocks on the door and she answers. ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m the mayor.’ She was shocked that he’d actually come out to see her. They parted as the best of friends.
“Neville’s great gift was that he related to people so well. He was a very down to earth character and people responded. If you left him standing on a street corner having a cigarette, when you got back there’d be a crowd of people standing around talking to him.”
He loved the mayoral balls because he loved wheeling and dealing. He’d tap his mates and acquaintances for donations for the auction and raffle. He’d be out from dawn to dusk collecting stuff and bringing it back to the council for the big night. “It’s probably fair to say that one or two of these associates may have been a bit dodgy but that was of no consequence,” Frank Angarane said.
Conservation wasn’t top of Neville’s priorities but there was a memorable occasion on which he won the hearts of local environmentalists by stopping one of Victoria’s richest men in his tracks.
In 2006 Lindsay Fox, trucking tycoon and owner of the Phillip Island race track, proposed a $300 million golf and villa development adjoining the track. The Labor State Government obligingly rezoned the Linfox land to enable the development. All that remained was for the council to rubber stamp it.
The issue split the community and councillors. Several golf course developments were planned for Bass Coast at the time but the Linfox development was particularly contentious because it was highly visible on the south coast of the island and part of the coastal pathway was to be taken for the golf course.
Cr Peter Paul led the no side, arguing that public land should not be given up for private gain, but was unable to attend the council meeting. The vote was tied at 3-3, with Neville voting in favour.
As mayor, he had an extra casting vote to settle the stalemate. It looked as though Lindsay Fox would win the day. Then Neville used his casting vote to reject the proposal. He explained that was how his absent colleague would have voted and he felt it best reflected the council thinking.
Neville burnt a few bridges that night. He had offended one of Victoria’s richest and most powerful men and frustrated the Government. But he won the gratitude of many for a remarkable act of political chivalry.
“I thanked him,” Peter Paul said this week. “In hindsight it was the right decision. I think Neville would agree with that.”
There were other challenges. One winter morning the following year then Victorian Premier Steve Bracks rang Neville out of the blue to inform him he was about to announce that Victoria’s desalination plant would be built between Kilcunda and Wonthaggi. All hell broke loose with a media scrum descending on the council for comment and a shell-shocked community.
“It was challenging,” Alan recalls. “Because it was one of the first desalination plants no one knew much about them. In those early days there were a lot of negotiations with the Government and the consortia that were bidding to build it.”
He says Neville’s people and political skills proved invaluable. “He was known as a staunch Liberal Party member but he could walk into the office of a Labor minister and connect with them. When we met with the Water Minister or Premier, Neville had a great rapport.”
Peter Paul says the lack of consultation with the council and community was an issue. “Neville gradually built bridges with the desal people and he won some concessions.”
He didn’t always agree with Neville but believes he was a very good mayor.
“He was a political animal. You understood that, but he could talk to people on the other side. You could connect with him. We had long discussions. He supported some of the issues I was involved in. We didn’t agree on everything but you felt you got a hearing.
“People will have fond memories of Neville’s service to Bass Coast. He was very attuned to the needs of Wonthaggi but also prepared to understand the needs of other councillors in other areas.”
On a personal level, he recalls “a lovely man”. “I liked him, I enjoyed his company and I respected what he tried to do for Bass Coast.”
The cigarettes and sausage rolls finally caught up with Neville in his final year as mayor when he had a heart attack. In typical Neville fashion, he lit up another cigarette and made a cup of tea, but eventually had heart surgery and gave up the smokes.
After he left the council and despite indifferent health, he continued his public service through Rotary, the Vietnam Veterans Museum and various other organisations. In 2012 he was the Bass Coast Citizen of the Year.
Frank Angarane’s friendship with Neville continued until the end. The last visit was just a couple of weeks before he died. Frank always came away from a conversation or visit feeling better for the experience.
“Nev had absolutely no pretensions and he could laugh at himself and see a good side of every situation. You could not have a conversation with him and not have a smile on your face and feel happier than you were before you spoke to him.”
Not all of Neville’s acquaintances were pillars of society but they all had fond memories of a man known to many as Nifty Nev. As Bass Coast Mayor Rochelle Halstead has noted, people would turn to Neville when they needed help. “Who do we call now when we need something done?”
Frank Angarane set the tone early. He and Neville once attended a funeral after which they agreed there had been a fair bit of exaggeration about the character of the deceased. They agreed that whoever outlived the other would tell it as it was, “no bullshit”.
The two men met in the early 1990s when Frank went to work for the Bass Shire Council, based in Archies Creek. Neville was a councillor, Frank a staff member.
“It didn’t take long to connect with Nev because he was always interested in what was going on. He was an old school operator and to be quite honest that made him more endearing. He loved a free lunch and the unhealthier it was the more he liked it. Nev would turn up his eyes at the sight of a salad or fruit. If he was ever AWOL there was a fair chance he would be out of view somewhere like a naughty school boy having a fag.
“It’s fair to say that he didn’t live the healthiest of lifestyles but he was always happy and being happy is hard to argue with.”
Neville’s son Wayne detailed Neville’s early working life: apprentice cabinet maker, TV delivery man, roller door salesman, builder, sharemilker …
In 1981 Neville and Lynne bought a farm at Woodleigh and started milking 100-120 cows. The first year they got hit by a drought, the second year the farm was flooded. “It was a challenge for any farmer let alone an inexperienced one.”
Wayne noted that Neville's timing was often a bit off. Friends joked that he left a trail of closures in his wake. The Loch Football Club and Bass Valley Football League both folded while he was in charge. In 1992 he was elected to the Bass Shire Council and two years later then Liberal premier Jeff Kennett sacked all the councils in a round of forced amalgamations.
This time round, it worked out okay for Neville. He’d joined the Liberal Party and when the State Government was handing out jobs for the boys, he scored a job as a Commissioner of the new Wyndham Council, on the other side of Melbourne.
It was the start of a new chapter in his working life. Once the new councils were elected, he moved on to work as electorate officer for Liberal Bass MP Ken Smith which is when then Bass Coast Shire Council CEO Alan Bawden first got to know him.
“If someone came in with a problem that related to the council Neville would get on the phone to me. ‘Alan, here’s the problem, how can we fix it?’ He liked to fix things, either as mayor or as a Rotarian. He loved helping people, he loved talking to them, he loved getting them together.”
Neville was elected to the council in 2003. In his second year, he was elected mayor, serving four consecutive terms. Alan says it was an exceptional period of continuity for the council.
"In the life of a mayor it takes a year to get to know the role and the people before you can become effective. He was looked to across the region for his leadership and served as chair of the Gippsland Local Government Network.”
Despite his growing influence, he remained a hands-on mayor who liked to fix things personally. “He never sat still. He liked to be out and about. We got a letter of complaint once, I can’t remember what it was about but he took exception to it. He got in the car and went to see the person who wrote it. He knocks on the door and she answers. ‘Who are you?’ ‘I’m the mayor.’ She was shocked that he’d actually come out to see her. They parted as the best of friends.
“Neville’s great gift was that he related to people so well. He was a very down to earth character and people responded. If you left him standing on a street corner having a cigarette, when you got back there’d be a crowd of people standing around talking to him.”
He loved the mayoral balls because he loved wheeling and dealing. He’d tap his mates and acquaintances for donations for the auction and raffle. He’d be out from dawn to dusk collecting stuff and bringing it back to the council for the big night. “It’s probably fair to say that one or two of these associates may have been a bit dodgy but that was of no consequence,” Frank Angarane said.
Conservation wasn’t top of Neville’s priorities but there was a memorable occasion on which he won the hearts of local environmentalists by stopping one of Victoria’s richest men in his tracks.
In 2006 Lindsay Fox, trucking tycoon and owner of the Phillip Island race track, proposed a $300 million golf and villa development adjoining the track. The Labor State Government obligingly rezoned the Linfox land to enable the development. All that remained was for the council to rubber stamp it.
The issue split the community and councillors. Several golf course developments were planned for Bass Coast at the time but the Linfox development was particularly contentious because it was highly visible on the south coast of the island and part of the coastal pathway was to be taken for the golf course.
Cr Peter Paul led the no side, arguing that public land should not be given up for private gain, but was unable to attend the council meeting. The vote was tied at 3-3, with Neville voting in favour.
As mayor, he had an extra casting vote to settle the stalemate. It looked as though Lindsay Fox would win the day. Then Neville used his casting vote to reject the proposal. He explained that was how his absent colleague would have voted and he felt it best reflected the council thinking.
Neville burnt a few bridges that night. He had offended one of Victoria’s richest and most powerful men and frustrated the Government. But he won the gratitude of many for a remarkable act of political chivalry.
“I thanked him,” Peter Paul said this week. “In hindsight it was the right decision. I think Neville would agree with that.”
There were other challenges. One winter morning the following year then Victorian Premier Steve Bracks rang Neville out of the blue to inform him he was about to announce that Victoria’s desalination plant would be built between Kilcunda and Wonthaggi. All hell broke loose with a media scrum descending on the council for comment and a shell-shocked community.
“It was challenging,” Alan recalls. “Because it was one of the first desalination plants no one knew much about them. In those early days there were a lot of negotiations with the Government and the consortia that were bidding to build it.”
He says Neville’s people and political skills proved invaluable. “He was known as a staunch Liberal Party member but he could walk into the office of a Labor minister and connect with them. When we met with the Water Minister or Premier, Neville had a great rapport.”
Peter Paul says the lack of consultation with the council and community was an issue. “Neville gradually built bridges with the desal people and he won some concessions.”
He didn’t always agree with Neville but believes he was a very good mayor.
“He was a political animal. You understood that, but he could talk to people on the other side. You could connect with him. We had long discussions. He supported some of the issues I was involved in. We didn’t agree on everything but you felt you got a hearing.
“People will have fond memories of Neville’s service to Bass Coast. He was very attuned to the needs of Wonthaggi but also prepared to understand the needs of other councillors in other areas.”
On a personal level, he recalls “a lovely man”. “I liked him, I enjoyed his company and I respected what he tried to do for Bass Coast.”
The cigarettes and sausage rolls finally caught up with Neville in his final year as mayor when he had a heart attack. In typical Neville fashion, he lit up another cigarette and made a cup of tea, but eventually had heart surgery and gave up the smokes.
After he left the council and despite indifferent health, he continued his public service through Rotary, the Vietnam Veterans Museum and various other organisations. In 2012 he was the Bass Coast Citizen of the Year.
Frank Angarane’s friendship with Neville continued until the end. The last visit was just a couple of weeks before he died. Frank always came away from a conversation or visit feeling better for the experience.
“Nev had absolutely no pretensions and he could laugh at himself and see a good side of every situation. You could not have a conversation with him and not have a smile on your face and feel happier than you were before you spoke to him.”