Vale Hugh Mason, a brilliant, long-serving Strathfieldsaye Shire engineer, who died on July 10, 2017, aged 91 years, at Strath Haven, just a stone’s throw from his shire office in Condon Street.
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This was a splendid building, part planned and supervised by Hugh and is now the John Bomford Centre.
Hugh Mason’s family came from Durham Ox and moved to Bendigo in 1930, where he received a Catholic education, including Marist College.
In 1944, he followed his brother into the RAAF, being trained as a flight mechanic. Post World War II, he was off to Bendigo’s School of Mines to study civil engineering, which led him into municipal engineering jobs at Edenhope, Kerang and Rosedale.
Then followed a 12-year appointment as shire engineer at Yackandandah, where he built many roads and bridges.
He married his beloved Deirdre in 1954 and three children followed – Anne, Tom and Matthew. With his busy professional life, Hugh always found time for family support – encouraging his kids in studies, horse-riding and sports, and also assisting Deirdre with home duties.
Unfortunately, she developed a serious health setback and sadly she passed away in 1975.
In 1966, the Mason family moved to Bendigo, where Hugh became shire engineer for Strathfieldsaye Shire – now one of Bendigo’s fast growing suburbs.
Here Hugh Mason was recognised as a remarkable civil and structural engineer and he now leaves a host of important local legacies, including numerous bridges, Bendigo Airfield, Bendigo Trotting Track, Brennan Park Swimming Pool, a chain of recreational facilities below Kennington Reservoir to McIvor Road and a planning scheme for Strathfieldsaye Shire, including setting aside land for sizable shopping centres at Strathfieldsaye, Strath Village and Strath Hill.
He was also a specialist in road design and construction (check those helpful cambered corners on the Sedgwick-Sutton Grange Road).
During the late 1960s through to the 1980s, Hugh was always ready to help the Kimbolton and Metcalfe Recreational Area Management Committees at Lake Eppalock with rubbish disposal and occasional maintenance of internal service roads to club sites.
One public appointment of note was as director of Bendigo College of Advanced Education, with the difficult role of merging with the Bendigo Teachers’ College.
One VCAT hearing challenged Hugh, who then decided in 1980 to complete a qualification in town planning as a mature-aged residential student at the University of New England in NSW.
This led to a special assignment in South Australia, developing a town plan and road system for the desert town of Roxby Downs to cater for families linked to the nearby huge Olympic Dam uranium mine.
In her eulogy for Hugh, his daughter Anne said: “he considered this his proudest professional achievement.”
But come 1994, the Victorian government’s municipal amalgamation legislation created the City of Greater Bendigo, which meant the demise of Strathfieldsaye Shire.
But Hugh was not finished yet. He accepted the role of chief commissioner to establish the new amalgamated municipality of Colac-Otway, until elected local councillors were appointed.
This is rather ironic in that “amalgamation” had caused the demise of Strathfieldsaye Shire and the end of his engineering role there.
Finally, we should not forget that Hugh was a keen swimmer and in his retirement years competed and won medals in the Masters Games.
Hugh Mason is now a vital part of Bendigo’s human and structural history.
- Writer David H Elvery, of Flora Hill, worked with Mr Mason in a professional capacity for many years.