By KATRINA BRANDON
LIFE-LONG Yinnar resident, Lloyd Wicks, turned 90 this year.
He celebrated his birthday last month, surrounded by family and friends.
Celebrations took place on the Yinnar property where he grew up and has lived all his life.
He is the fourth generation on the property, and still lives there alongside his wife, Myrna.
From the early days of Yallourn Technical School, to the last train departure from Mirboo North to Morwell, to being awarded the 2017 Yinnar Citizen of the Year, he has been constantly active in the local area. He is also one of the original Yinnar and District Historical Society members, and a lifelong Country Fire Authority member.
“How do I feel? I suppose I just feel like I am the same young guy, but can’t do some of the things I could do when I was younger,” he told the Express.
“I have a lot of good memories. I can’t individualise any.”
As a kid, some of Lloyd’s favourite memories were watching sky-farmer aeroplanes land on his dad’s (now his) farm.
When he took over the property, he said there was an adjustment period.
“It was a bit strange for a while because it was dad’s farm, and it takes a while to climatise to it being your farm,” he said.
His career didn’t stop as a farmer or as a father. He became a motor mechanic in Morwell, which later transferred to Yinnar and back to Morwell, a clown and a videographer. As a videographer, Lloyd worked with Myrna at weddings, funerals, and other events. He said they spent many hours taking videos and then went home and edited late into the night.
“We loved them. We have done a lot of history around the place through interviews,” he said.
Myrna added: “You got to the stage where it was pretty hard work starting early in the morning to midnight, lugging the equipment around and the hours of editing afterwards. But, we enjoyed it.”
Lloyd was a member of the local water ski club at the Yallourn storage dam. He started with competition skiing and later went onto provide entertainment through his alter ego ‘Ralph Ratbag’. Later, he skied the Yarra during Moomba, picking up an award for Best Male Entertainer in 1972.
Ralph Ratbag soon became more than water talent, moving over to street parades, birthday parties and shopping centre appearances for several decades.
“You would get into trouble doing the things that we did nowadays,” he said.
“One of them was one of the guys would stand on the bank with a shotgun with crackers in it, and I would be on the horse, standing on it, being towed by a boat, and they would fire the gun, immediately pull a pin on the boat and the horse (skis and a 44-gallon drum) would stop dead in the water, and I would go flying.
“I can remember they would light the cracker in the gun, I would run up beside the car that was towing a boat, and the guy in the car would have a cigarette going. I would put the gun right near him with the wick sticking out of it. He would light that; I would put that on the ground, keep running in front of it right in the main street, Commercial Road in Morwell.”
Lloyd said that even though Ralph Ratbag occupied a large part of his life, he will never forget it, and he was happy to give it up when he did – especially memories such as being able to drive through the Mid Valley shopping centre in a clown car.
Lloyd and Myrna continue to spend time with their family, taking videos and editing them, continuing a rich legacy.
