Out the back of Burke’s
Many people look forward to retirement as a time to slow down. LEE BEASLEY found that at 94, Bill Burke shows no signs of stopping.
When 94-year-old Bill Burke stands at his kitchen window and looks at his rear garden he sees neglect. It’s another reminder that time is passing and that he has more past than future. It’s not frail bones or ailing eyesight that impede Bill’s gardening endeavours. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day for him to achieve everything he sets out to do. As a consequence, Burke’s backyard suffers.
Three and a half days a week Bill makes his way from Essendon across to Ascot Vale where he volunteers for the Society of St Vincent de Paul at their opportunity shop. He’s candid about his earlier experiences with the Society which included ‘twenty or so years as president’.
‘Then they brought out a decree that nobody’s allowed to last more than three years in any executive position, so I got kicked out.’
While Bill feels he may have been ‘kicked out’ of office, he has not wavered in his service to the community through St Vincent de Paul. Thirty-two years of volunteering to date and like a steamroller he keeps pressing on.
In the early years Bill drove the Vinnie’s truck picking up and delivering goods for the Essendon, Broadmeadows and Flemington districts.
‘It was quite enjoyable really ’cause it gave me a chance to meet many people, different types, and you realise that life is not exactly as it seems all the time. Some people are suffering. Some are just straight-out bludgers, in no more need of help than I am. Just because it’s there, something for nothing, they’ll go for it. But they are the minority.’
Bill chuckles as the memories of events bubble to the surface. Some men tell stories of war, but Bill’s are stories of battles with wardrobes.
There’s the time a fellow volunteer dangled a wardrobe over the balcony two stories up and it was Bill’s job to catch it at the bottom. Or manipulating a cumbersome closet up sixteen flights of stairs to find the needy recipient indifferent to their efforts and scarcely looking up from the television indicating with his beer as to where the wardrobe should be left.
But his most colourful tale is the pensioner’s wardrobe. A deceased estate had been collected and brought to the centre. A large wooden wardrobe with numerous drawers was among the collection. As he checked for cracks, the store manager found one of the drawers in a wardrobe was stuck. Through stubborn persistence and determination the manager freed the drawer and found over two thousand dollars.
A charitable organisation such as the Society would have benefited greatly from the cash surplus but because honesty is their only policy, the money was returned to the next of kin. As a reward, the Ascot Vale centre received a token twenty-dollar donation. Bill rocks with laughter as he shakes his head. Working at St Vincent’s gives him an insight into the how the community works.
‘Some are good, some are bad but … that’s life.’
Bill’s life would fit in the ‘good’ category. He takes it upon himself to go out to the back of the shop to sort the belts, socks and shoes and put them on the shelves.
‘It may not seem like much but it keeps the place running’, he explains. ‘And there’s always the satisfaction you haven’t wasted your time; you have done something useful.’
Bill’s experiences with the Society aren’t limited to Ascot Vale. In June 1975, six months after Cyclone Tracy ripped through Darwin, Bill was asked to lend a hand.
‘It was a real unique experience, absolutely amazing, the place was like a battlefield. All you could see was rubble and this was six months after. The army and the navy had been in there and cleaned up as much as they could but you’d see a couple of concrete pillars and a washing machine stuck on top of one of the pillars. Right throughout the place, utter ruin.’
Bill, together with another volunteer, Tony Ryan, worked tirelessly to represent the Society and to meet the needs of the cyclone victims.
Goods delivered from other states were methodically distributed but the work was not without its challenges. On some occasions flooding in the southern part of the territory prevented trucks from getting through with necessary supplies. On other occasions the obstacles were man-made. Bill recalls a time when there was a shortage of sugar.
‘There was a ship out there in the bay but there was a wharfies’ strike. There was a shortage of sugar but there was no shortage of beer. There was always plenty of beer.’ Bill laughs again.
In Bill’s other ‘spare’ time he coaches athletics, four men’s teams. Two nights a week his son Gerald drives him down to the Alberfeldie track. Bill records the performances of the fellows each week and organises the order of competitors for the events during the Saturday meets. Four sections with fifteen events each, adds up to a great deal of dedication from Bill.
His passion for running started in 1926. Running with the Essendon club he had his first race on January 15, 1927 at the old Motordrome now know as Olympic Park.
Bill helped bring about a victory for the club in 1928 when his team won the B grade premiership. The following year they were moved up to A grade and Bill continued to participate until 1939 when he was married and moved to Benalla.
Over the next fourteen years his moves with the railways would see his cross-country career come and go. Finally, in 1953, Bill moved back to Melbourne and began running again. The transition from competitor to coach was gradual but complete by the late sixties.
There is no sign of deceleration in Bill’s future, only new horizons
to run. He still has the gait of a runner and the attitude of a winner.
Bill’s garden may need a backyard blitz or an old fashioned family
working bee to bring it back to standard. But while Bill volunteers and
his garden lies neglected, people in need are not.
CURRENT ISSUE | ABOUT | ADVERTISING | PREVIOUS ISSUES | LINKS
Reproduction of material from any Jesuit Publications pages
without written prior permission is strictly prohibited.
Copyright 2002 Jesuit Publications
PO Box 553 Richmond VIC 3121 Australia
Tel +61 3 9427 7311, Fax +61 3 9428 4450