Ian CAMERON

CAMERON, Ian

Loved father to Russell and John, brother to Noel and life friend to Jan. A kind hearted naturalist who loved the Tweed Valley and the simple life it offered.

26.03.1941 - 22.03.2020

Goodbye Dad

Einstein said...

“Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be changed from one form to another.”

That is how it all began, an unimaginable amount of energy was released and the dimensions of the space-time continuum was formed. This allowed the energy to change into matter which eventually became the stars.

Within those stars, matter and energy mingled to create all the elements that make up our solar system, our planet and all life on earth.

Eventually after a lot of mucking around with single cell organisms, sea creatures, dinosaurs and meteor impacts, Ian Thomas James Cameron was born in Warragul, Victoria on the 26^th of March 1941.

Just like all of us he started off small and got bigger, he learned things and occasionally wished he could unlearn things. He loved nature, planes, trains, boats, in particular sailing boats. His love for planes and flying though showed and later he learned to make and fly model planes.

Eventually he became a Civil Engineer, got married and had two boys. He shared his love of nature, trains and planes with his boys and eventually they taught him the joy of RC cars. On one of our many trips to Victoria as kids Dad and Noel decided to introduce us all to hand line model planes. It would be fair to say that this was just one highlight of many we had with dad on our trips to Victoria to visit Noel, Liz, Linda and Leon.

Out we would go onto the oval next to Noel’s house with a wheel barrow full of planes and a car battery and come back with a wheel barrow full of broken balsa wood and a car battery and a lot of smiles. Thanks to Liz’s dress making there were plenty of dress pins to hold the balsa together as we glued all the planes back together ready for another round.

In between planes there was homemade boomerang flying just to keep in theme. Some of the other many fun things we did on our many trips included tickling for trout, catching goats for the farm, making hot air balloons and the occasional blowing up letterboxes with fire crackers to mention a few. Never a dull moment when dad and Noel are together.

Back home this matured to radio controlled planes but in the form of radio-controlled gliders. The best part of this was it combined multiple loves for dad, getting out to nature up in the mountains and flying. This was perfect for gliders allowing us to choose slopes with up drafts so we could fly all day, no fuel, no noise and maximum fun. What more could a kid ask for from his dad.

For all his faults (we all have them) he never taught his boys to hate, never taught any form of bigotry despite being homophobic as a result of his religious upbringing. Dad always took n interest in anything his boys did and enjoyed the time he spent with them. It was his interest in what we were interested in that led to him buying Russell his first soldering iron and eventually an electronics kit so that Russell would stop melting plastic with it. Russell never looked back as he taught himself about electronics, he had found his passion.

As a civil engineer, dad did his bit to ensure Queenslanders had water all year round. In Gympie he was particularly challenged having to directly deal with farmers who hated politicians and hated the system. I think being that dad was a country boy at heart helped and taking a 6 pack of beer out to have a chat with one of the farmers didn’t go astray. For a job which politics ruled dad was able to influence and change things outside the rules bringing him much satisfaction before early retirement. His 2 greatest work achievements was bringing together an office of workers in Gympie how hated each other and him and getting the time taken for new irrigation approvals down from 3 years to 3 months and being able to sign off on them himself, not head office.

As a field naturalist dad shared his love of nature not only with his family but with other members of the community. The idea of the group was each time we met in the centre of Gympie it was a different families turn to take everyone to somewhere they loved, to share what they enjoyed doing. We shared many great adventures as a family getting out and enjoying BBQ’s and nature.

Retirement came early for dad and at this point he had met Jan Dillon. They shared the same passion for nature but Jan had an extra sense of adventure. This was good for dad and challenged him to get out of his comfort zone. Together they climbed mountains, adventured through the Northern Territory and brought a Hobie Cat. They sailed that Hobie cat as far north as the Whitsundays and as far south as Sydney Harbour before eventually upgrading to a 27ft sailing boat. During retirement dad continued to contribute as a companion and caretaker for Jan Dillon as they shared a love and friendship that is rare to find today. 

Now the space-time continuum has paused so that he can get off this wild ride we call life and begin his next phase of existence. So instead of saying goodbye perhaps we should express our good wishes and say...

“Bon Voyage or Beam me up Scotty”.