Vale Bob Loone

I write to honour Robert (Bob) George Loone who sadly died on 1st December 2013, aged 73, after a battle with cancer.

In writing this remembrance I feel somewhat ill prepared and unable to do justice to this extraordinary man and the sheer breadth of his life.

A great bloke and a genuinely good man, Bob helped many people. Indeed his commitment to community was a deep and undeniable part of his life. Bob was never one to boast about his achievements.

From his hospital bed a week before he died he said to me “I cannot complain; I have had a good life.”. He made this statement in that simple way of his that left one in no doubt that it was absolutely true. Bob was a man of many facets, with many interests and activities.

Bob was not generally one to complain, that is unless he saw an injustice. The truth was very important to Bob Loone. He regularly talked about integrity; indeed he actively promoted that quality. Although he led by example he was clearly saying that others who sought to represent the community should embrace the concept of integrity too.

In a submission to the Commonwealth Inquiry into the Australian forestry industry – 2011 he said:

“I value very highly integrity and honesty. Therefore I am being very honest and forthright with you with information based on my long and very detailed data and experience with the Australian forestry industry.”

While his campaigning against MIS plantations will be remembered it was his wonderful example of how to behave, how to conduct one self, which may be the more important legacy. Trustworthiness was of paramount importance to Bob Loone and he was highly successful in gaining peoples’ trust, simply by being intrinsically trustworthy.

Bob was a person who put the pieces together. He made sense out of seemingly unconnected collections of facts, events and drew out forecasted outcomes and consequences. His intuitive soul was a fundamental quality of the man.

A deeply devout Christian, he lived his beliefs every day, in every way. Again it was a leading by example exercise for Bob. A dedicated member of the Uniting Church, Bob regularly spoke as a lay preacher and was also involved in managing a local chaplain program.

Bob was a Meander Valley Councillor from 1996 until his death nine days ago. For much of that time he was Deputy Mayor. He was usually re-elected with a huge personal vote. Often I witnessed Bob in Council struggling to get his position accepted. He was a man who was prepared to accept an eight to one vote against him and still get up and have another go. He never gave up the fight. He had an admirable persistence and resolve.

He always forgave his opponents regardless of their behaviour with a comment such as: “they know not what they do”. He had amazing resilience and an inspiring capacity to forgive people, even his detractors.

Some will best remember Bob for his sustained and substantial campaigning against Managed Investment Scheme driven forestry eucalypt plantations and the various issues around that subject, including the PAL policy. But there was so much more to the man.

Bob and Olive ran Loone’s Rural Services for about 40 years, maybe longer and a school bus fleet as well. They had a farm on the Mole Creek Rd. At that time about 40 years ago or so, Bob did dairy herd recording for the Department of Agriculture. He started selling farm supplies out of the boot of his car, then from home. It became a flourishing business, which his daughter Jan took over in about 2000.

Many years ago Bob established the Chudleigh water supply and has operated it ever since – one of the few privately managed community town water supplies in Tasmania.

Bob was honoured as the patron of the Chudleigh show in recognition of his long contribution. A tireless advocate for his home of Chudleigh, he promoted its lifestyle, its heritage and tourism. For Bob, Chudleigh was the centre of the universe. He supported the establishment by the community of the Chudleigh Fire Brigade, in the time before the state fire service managed the building.

Bob was involved with Deloraine Rotary and an active person in the organising the Deloraine and later the Tasmanian Craft Fairs.

He was involved with the local youth of the area and for years took them to events and on bus trips I am told.

Bob gardened and had a productive veggie garden giving away most of the produce. He loved figs and around the back of the Deloraine Uniting Church there is a beautiful old fig tree lovingly tended by Bob.

In 2006, Bob became the president of the Western Rivers Preservation Trust, a community group advocating the conservation and sound management of the catchments of the Western Rivers. It was during this time that Council claimed he was acting in a biased way (trying to protect the community’s water supply) whilst failing to identify all the biased people round the table. He spent a significant amount of time and energy working with other community members fighting to protect the Mole Creek water supply from plantation pollution.

Bob was indeed an ordinary, genuine, law abiding Tasmanian. Well, maybe not so ordinary after all. Although not the product of an extensive education, he was an intelligent and insightful man.

Bob became aware of health issues within the rural community which he was totally sure were related to the use of chemicals especially aerial spraying on MIS plantations. People came to him about the issue and he developed a log of information about the problem. He built up an extensive database and raised the health issues through various Government consultation processes.

I came into closer contact with Bob Loone in his role as Deputy Mayor in 2004 when a number of people had been objecting to a large Private Timber Reserve in Reedy Marsh. Completely out of the blue Bob volunteered himself as the representative who ran the Council objection and liaised with the Reedy Marsh community. Subsequently Bob Loone, then with few computer skills, taught himself not only about PTRs but about how to use a computer as well. He worked amazingly hard for the community over this issue.

Others probably remember Bob for all sorts of other activities and achievements but everyone knew Bob Loone as an honest, courageous, generous and witty man with a heart as big as the sky.

Bob’s funeral service is today, Tuesday, the 10th December at 1.00 pm at the Deloraine Community Complex, Alveston St, Deloraine.

• Pete Godfrey, in Comments: We will never know all the things Bob did in his fight to make the Meander Valley and Tasmania a better place to live. He was a true Gentleman, I am proud to have spent time in his company. I will also miss him, it is not often that one comes across a public figure who is truly in it for what he can do for others. Bob used to do the rounds of the valley on a regular basis, sitting in his car waiting at set spots for people who needed to talk about council issues with him. He always made himself available. Andrew has summed him up well thankyou. Bob knew where he was going when he died and was very positive about the process. He harboured no bitterness or fear. A truly Great Man.