In April/May 1988 I experienced a stint of 4 weeks hospitalisation in St.Vincents Hospital, Melbourne and Bethesda Melbourne. On  discharge  I returned to work in my accountancy practice in Bridge Street Benalla and worked from 10.a.m. until 2 p.m. for some time.

When I knocked off at 2 p.m , I would, on my way home, call into St.Joseph’s church for a quick visit. One day I found the cloth on the altar had been set alight.  I was there! The altar was constructed of marble and the surrounds were all tiles, so there was no chance of the fire spreading. I promptly extinguished the fire and went to the Presbytery, or the Parish House as it is now known, to advise the clergy. There were then three priests sharing control of the parish, a change from the old fashioned Monsignor O’Rielly who ruled the parish on his own.  None of the priests were present; Kate McCormack was there voluntarily painting the interior of one of the rooms.  I suggested to her that she should advise the priests, who I expected to contact the  police.

The next day, when I was on my way to the church, I noticed a large black cloud of smoke billowing from the church  in front of me. The arsonist had struck again!  The whole church was alight!  It took some time, but even with the attendance of the town’s volunteer fire brigade, the church was completely gutted. Miraculously, the stained glass window  behind the altar was unharmed, but the church itself was nothing but a shell.

There was great consternation among the clergy and the parishioners, and a restructuring committee was quickly  formed under the guidance of Greg Dore as chairman.  Jim Smith, my business partner, anxious to raise quick funds, suggested an auction of 20 numbered certificates bearing a photo of the church and appropriate wording. The auction was  soon held with John Boyd acting as auctioneer. With a large crowd in attendance the NO 1 certificate was purchased by the St.Joseph’s cricket club for  a handy sum. The  NO 2 certificate was purchased by Bernadette and myself for a sum in excess of $300. A considerable amount was raised.

The insurance company paid for a large part of the restructure, but there was a short fall. Consequently the pipe organ , which had cost many thousand dollars, was not replaced, and the slate tile roof was replaced by colorbond, a fact which riled a number of parishioners. Because of the short fall, there was still need for an appeal, which quickly made up the difference. In times of need parishioners were particularly generous.

The church was unavailable for the conduct of services for many months and the Anglican Church , in a generous euchaminical gesture, allowed the Catholics to use Holy Trinity Church on significant occasions, such as weddings and funerals. For our regular Sunday Masses the St.Joseph’s School  hall was used.
 

Ray O'Shannessy
​May 16, 2017

On 1st November 2013  ‘I was there’ at Government House in Melbourne where the Governor of Victoria, Alex Churnov, presented me with the Order of Australia Medal which I had been awarded in the Queen’s Birthday honours of 10th June.

The prelude to the Presentation  was that I had been advised on 10th April, by the Governor General’s office in Canberra, that I was being considered for an Order of Australia Medal , (O.A.M.), ‘For Service to the Community of Benalla’ and if I was prepared to accept it, I should sign an acceptance  form and a confidentiality agreement .This, I was only too happy to do.

On 28th May I received a further letter from Canberra confirming the award. I was to keep the award secret from anybody, until a press release had been made on the Queen’s birthday, Monday 10th June. How difficult was this! I was highly excited.

My grandson, Darcy was celebrating his 10th birthday on Sunday 9th June at our place, and the whole extended O’Shannessy family was in attendance. I thought that it was an appropriate time to break the silence, and so made the announcement to my family. They were all very happy..

Once the news was published I was overwhelmed by the many cards and messages of congratulations. At Rotary I made the statement “Humble …be damned. I am proud”.

Then the presentation date was to be organised, and here I had a problem. Because of the large numbers of recipients, the number of guests was limited to two family members  each. No additional entrees would be issued!...... I have a wife and four children; five into two won’t go!  Fortunately the two boys were not concerned about attending, but my two girls, in their own little way, indicated that they, individually, expected to attend. How could I avoid offending one of them?   I’m not one to be persuasive, but I rang Government house and spoke to a very understanding lady. I followed this up with a letter to Canberra, and unobstrusively, a few days later, an extra ticket arrived in the mail.  All had been saved!

There was great joy when I advised that the three women of my family could attend the presentation.

On perusing the list of recipients, my son and my son-in-law noted that Cadel Evans, the winner of the Tour de France, had also been awarded an O.A.M. They each purchased a Cadel Evans shirt for me to obtain his signature on!.

On the morning of Friday 1st November, my daughter Cathy arrived from Wodonga and drove the other three of us to Government House to arrive by 10 a.m., the stipulated time. Guests assembled in the large Hall, while recipients gathered in the adjoining dining room. We were seated in alphabetical order and I sat with Ross Oakley, a former St.Kilda footballer and former C.E.O. of the VFL and AFL.

All recipients then took our turn to be presented with our medallions by the Governor, and to have our photos taken with him.

It was, indeed, a memorable occasion.
 
Ray O’Shannessy
15 May 2017

October 2nd 1993 was to be a memorable day in my life.  It was the wedding day of our first born, our son Anthony.  The wedding was conducted at St.John’s Catholic Church in Mitcham and the reception which was in Blackburn. This wedding was the forerunner to 3 delightful grandchildren, his 2 year working stint in Switzerland, a  big job in Docklands as CFO for the Melbourne Water Board, and upwards to $1.5m house in Warrandyte.

We had a wonderful night and drove home the next evening, fully satisfied with our life. As we drove home past the Benalla golf club, Bernadette noted that there had obviously been a lot of rain. Little did we know that the following day would also be memorable.  Why?

At 12.30 a.m. on Monday 4th October, the phone disturbed my sound sleep, for Tony Smith, my business partner’s son, to advise me that the police had phoned him to warn of an impending flood, and that our business premises were in danger. Get down there fast!

By 1.30 Tony and I, working in the office, had lifted everything ponderable to a height which we believed to be above any pending flood level.  Oh yeah? The flood came through 10 minutes later at a height above desk level. Our estimate was sadly too low. Papers and files, which we considered to be safe, were inundated. So too, were our computers and all floor level furnishings.

I managed to beat the flood at the gardens, and arrived home safe and sound at about 1.45 am. Our house is situated in the highest area in Benalla so we did not experience the flooding which so many householders endured.

The morning revealed that a great portion of Benalla was awash. Bernadette’s brother Gilbert and his family, (Dunlop Place), her sister Denise, (Walker Street) had been evacuated during the night and were accommodated  at the Technical School hall. The bowling club house, (my second home) was flooded to a record high, as were the bowling greens.

Because of the flooded river, we were unable to get back down to the office for 2 days and did not re-open for business for a further 3 weeks, during which time we uprooted our carpets and burnt many files of damaged accounting records .It was  a good opportunity to dispose of many, many old records. We sent 12 boxes of clients’ current records to Melbourne to be dried out. This  drying cost  us $100 each  small carton. Our furnishings were not covered for flood insurance, but marvellously, our computers were!  Although there was no accounting work done,  we continued to pay unemployed staff. With our furnishings and carpets losses, three weeks of nil production, and records’ drying fees, we incurred a significant financial loss.

Many businesses and home owners were denied insurance payouts because of a technicality in the interpretation of “storm damage” and “flood damage”. However, a very active group of victims took issue with the Insurance companies, and although it took years, many did receive compensation.


Ray O'Shannessy
May 2017
 
513 words.

On a very hot 5th day of February 1951, as a relatively young, and relatively new comer to Benalla, I was sitting at my desk  in the VPC office doing my clerical duties, when I heard, first, the fire siren, and then the fire bell, sound. The fire bell indicated that the fire was a bush fire, not a town house fire.

I quickly went to the front door and saw much activity in the street. It was soon obvious that this was not a small fire. People and cars and utes were frantically moving about. The fire was obviously more than the task of the volunteer brigades. Every able bodied male was being asked to volunteer.

Naturally I joined in, and somehow or other I found myself in a utility owned by two, 20 something year old brothers, the Smith boys. We were quickly out onto  the Kilfera Road, ahead of the fire.

I don’t’ recall whether we had fire beaters or just wheat bags but we were soon fighting the flames which were advancing on the road. A weatherboard church stood in the path of the fire.

The fire seemed to gain momentum and was advancing rapidly.  There was no doubt that it was going to cross the road at the point where we and the utility were stationed. In a hurry we sheltered behind the utility and, whoosh, before we knew it, the fire had travelled over the utility over us, and was proceeding, at a great pace, away in the distance. It was momentary. There was no time for fear or panic; everything happened so quickly.

​We looked around us. The fence had gone. We looked in front of us; the tinder dry church was a smouldering ruin, as were the fence posts. We were miraculously unharmed. The fire had gone over the top of us.

The fire  continued on its way and proceeded to destroy 30,000 acres of grass and wooded country; 12 homes, 320 miles of fencing, 8671 sheep, 121 cattle,  583 poultry, 24 pigs, 8 horses,2522 tons of hay, 61 tons of chaff, 2110 new  unused fence posts, and numerous miscellaneous articles. Estimated cost 168,000 pounds, which was a lot of money in those days. Regrettably one life was lost. This was a disaster.

To this day I do not know how we survived.

In the aftermath,  the community soon gathered to  offer assistance to the victims. There was a continuous round of fundraising. Dances were held in all the country halls around the district to help raise funds, and I was nearly danced out. There were street stalls, fetes and every conceivable form of fund raising.

Much later in life I became friendly with two Smith  farming brothers from the same area; but the fire had apparently disappeared from our memories, and,  even if it was the same pair, the fire was never discussed.
 
Ray O'Shannessy
489 words.