WALLY’S LIFELONG PASSION FOR KIAMA

KIAMA recently lost one of its most provocative residents when former town planner and local historian buff Wally Abraham died on August 20 after a brief battle with lung cancer.

Born in Kobe, Japan in 1923 Mr Abraham commenced his education at Dulwich College in London and completed it at Sydney Boys High School when his parents moved to Sydney as refugees from Japan in 1941.

Joining the air force on leaving school Mr Abraham was seconded into a select intelligence unit of five Australians who spoke and read Japanese. Collecting engine and airframe plates from crashed Japanese aircraft Mr Abraham was able to work the origins of the factories the parts were made in and as a result was able to guide long range bombing raids on Japanese factories.

Despite being a quarter Japanese and being born in the country, Mr Abrahams daughter Michaela Russell said her father had no qualms in helping plot Japans downfall.

I asked Dad about that and he said he had no concerns at all, she said. He had the same regrets a lot of people take away from war but not about fighting the Japanese. He said he always felt very British and Australian.

On his return from the War Mr Abrahams began studying architecture and town planning at Sydney University. In 1964 a committee appointed to advise the State Government on the establishment of a new university at Ryde, nominated him as the Architect-Planner for the new Macquarie University signalling the beginning of one of the most important chapters in Mr Abrahams life.

The university quickly became Mr Abrahams life as he set about busying himself with the design and construction of the buildings, the planning of roads and parking areas and the landscaping of the 135 hectares of old market gardens that had been acquired for the

university at Ryde.

I think it is fair to say Macquarie University will always be his lasting legacy, Mrs Russell said. He said that in his last week. He worked tirelessly on that place for twenty years. It was an amazing feat to design and build so many buildings so quickly.

They ended up naming a walkway that goes through the whole spine of the university after him. They named it Wallys Way which is a really nice gesture because he really did enjoy his time there.

In 1982 Mr Abraham retired to Kiama with his wife Felicity where he designed his own house sensitively sited on the eastern face of Saddleback Mountain. Mr Abrahams quickly became a local history buff and in the process uncovering an unknown part of Hoddles Track.

Dad just loved Kiama, Mrs Russell said. He had checked out the whole area within two hours of Sydney before he retired but the mix of the sea, the rolling green hills and the stone walls lured him down here.

He used to take about three hours to go down and empty the mail because he knew all the shopkeepers and he used to love having a coffee and a discussion in one of his favourite little haunts.

Mrs Russell said she will remember her Father as an excellent and good man in the best sense of the word.

He was a great father, she said.

Don Gazzard, Wallys friend of 60 years, described Mr Abraham as an opinionated, argumentative and extremely passionate man.

Wally was sometimes even abrasive but he had a subtle intelligence and was in the best sense a seeker of the best solution, he said.

We need more people like Wally Abraham to irritate the body politic and point the way ahead. His was a good productive life and he will be missed, walking up and down Terralong Street telling friends and acquaintances what was wrong and what needed to be done.

Kiama Council General Manager Michael Forsyth described Mr Abraham as a lateral thinker who would be very missed by the community.

Wally made a very valuable contribution to local affairs, in particular town planning and community development, he said. Wally prepared papers on a number of topics including the stone walls and he always tried to make

people think outside the square.

Felicity Abraham died in 1994. Wally is survived by his son Philip, his daughter Michaela and her husband Terry Russell and his two grandsons Nick and Ben.