Norm Golding
Born: 29 May 1907
Death: 21 June 2010
NORMAN Edward “Norm” Golding was born in Swan Hill, then known as Castle Darrington.
Norm was a legend in the Mallee, where he grew up, and in the Upper Yarra Valley, where he had lived for more than 80 years.
His childhood on a farm in the Mallee stood him in good stead for whatever life threw at him, from building a bridge across the Murray at Robinvale to breaking in horses, raising bees, building radios and dusting it up as a professional in the boxing ring.
He was one of six children – three girls and three boys born to Bertram and Katherine Golding.
By the age of seven he was driving horse and bullock teams for his tucker, grubbing Mallee roots for an extra earner, and back-burning the leftover vegetation.
He was put in charge of back-burning at Chillingolah at the age of 10. A fire was coming towards the town and the local policeman told the townsfolk “the lad was in charge”.
In 1926 Norm left the Mallee for a weekend in the Upper Yarra Valley, and never returned.
He met his wife Marion, who was a butcher, on a blind date in Powelltown. They were wed in 1939 and the marriage lasted 65 years and produced three children, Norma, Beth and Ronald.
Norm ran a bus service from Powelltown to Melbourne, which included delivering the mail, and then his bus serviced the Upper Yarra Dam, Warburton and McMahons Creek for many years.
Norm was an innovator who was well ahead of his time. He bought the old ice works building at East Warburton for £1000 in the late 1940s and taught himself to do mechanical repairs and build radio sets between bus runs.
Norm ran his radio shop until he retired. He was proud that he helped introduce two-way radios to the Country Fire Authority.
A life member of the CFA, Norm was always ready to take up hoses, should a bushfire threaten his neck of the woods in the Upper Yarra.
Before the CFA had formed, Norm had gathered a few men together to back-burn as the notorious 1939 fires swept over the hill towards Powelltown.
Norm was honoured with a Royal Humane Society bronze medal for bravery that day. Not just for saving Powelltown but also for saving nearly 100 people by driving through burning tracks in his trusty DeSoto.
Norm was an Upper Yarra Shire councillor and local mayor, and he contributed to numerous community and sporting organisations.
He played football for 46 years, still rucking for Upper Yarra Valley when he was 55.
All his life Norm always helped the needy, protected the weak and worked to see justice done, keen to stop a bully in his tracks.
Marion passed away in 2004, and Norm still lived independently until six months ago, cooking, cleaning, riding his exercise bike, and sharing his stories with friends and neighbours. In a dream his grandson Leigh had last week, Norm had said “I’ve done all my talking, the only one I need to talk to now is God.”
Norm passed away peacefully at Yarra Junction, reunited with Marion in his 104th year.
