Leader’s award

By Kath Gannaway
WHEN Ted Chisholm wagged school for six weeks his father was fined five shillings at the Warburton court house.
It was sixpence more than his partner-in-crime, Jimmy Biggs’s dad had to pay.
“I was identified as the ringleader,” explained Ted who was presented on Friday with the 2007 Mayor’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Shire of Yarra Ranges Australia Day Awards.
Mr Chisholm, now 87, is still very much a ringleader and, by his own admission, still has a healthy disregard for red tape.
These days his accomplices are better known as The River Crew and his time is spent not on skimming rocks from the banks of the Yarra River but on beautifying those very same banks… and much more.
Mr Chisholm was born in Warburton and makes no apologies for being “a bit Warburton-minded”.
He started work at 14 at the local garage, served in the AIF during World War II and with his wife Peggy raised their family of four.
Mr Chisholm joined the Warburton Advancement League (WAL) about 35 years ago and has been and still is a valuable community worker. His involvement in community projects, however, goes back even further.
Building the Cerini Centre alongside Father Cerini “one of the greatest blokes I’ve ever met in my life”, helping get the a swimming pool for the town and his on-going passion for the past 16 years, walking tracks, bridges, ramps, seating and other improvements along the Yarra River, are just some of his contributions to the town.
He was the architect of the river project, a WAL initiative and is still the driving force behind maintaining the tracks on a weekly basis.
The accolades – and he has had a few over the years – don’t sit easily with Mr Chisholm who says he could not do it without his crew. “I’ve been fortunate to work with and enjoy the friendship of some of the most decent, hard-working men you’d find anywhere,” he said.
“If you’ve got 10 good men, not the ones who start at 10am, the ones who will be there at 8am, then you can do just about anything.
“These are good men and some of them have retired from big jobs, one high up in the education department, another in the SEC and a couple of Seven Days (Adventists),” he says. Along with his volunteer crew, Mr Chisholm rates the late Ian de la Rue, community worker and Warburton Community Bank president and shire employee John Ford among the ‘good men’.
Mr Ford takes care of the parks and gardens in Warburton.
“He works harder than any two men and has made our job 10 times easier. He does far more than he is required to do,” he said.
Shire of Yarra Ranges mayor Tim Heenan met Ted last week and had the opportunity to look over some of The River Crew’s handiwork.
Describing Mr Chisholm as a ‘living treasure’, Cr Heenan said he was held in high regard by the Advancement League, the people in his River Crew and the wider Warburton Community.
“I can’t think of a more fitting recipient of an award which recognises a life-time of achievement,” he said.
For Mr Chisholm’s part, he says his community work is what keeps him alive.
And what would his parents say if they could see their ringleader now?
“Well, I’ve got the park down there,” he says pointing down the river towards Chisholm Park. “I often think my mum and dad would be proud of that,” he says.