17/05/1955 – 26/10/2022
Gary grew up in Charlton, Victoria where the Wood family have a long history. Having settled in the area in 1873, they farmed up until his parents, Ted and Margaret, sold the farm in 1989. For Gary it was a childhood filled with happy memories and adventures.
As was the Wood tradition, Gary followed his grandfather William (OW1920) (dec), great uncle Samuel (OW1927) (dec), uncle John (OW1944) (dec), father Ted (OW1946) (dec) and cousins Bill (OW1969), Doug (OW1973) and Ian (OW1977) to boarding school at Wesley College for four years, finishing in 1972.
Gary was very happy during his time at boarding school at Wesley. He was a champion swimmer and was also on the debating team and the school council. Gary’s wife, Diane, organised a surprise 50th birthday party for him in 2005 and all the boys that boarded with him at Wesley attended, even though he had not seen some of them since he left! Gary returned to Charlton College to repeat Year 12 in 1973. He was happy to be back home and proud to be voted School Captain. He also finished Dux of the school that year.
One of Gary’s lifetime loves was swimming and the record he set on his return to Charlton in 1973 at 18 years of age stood for 43 years until it was broken by local young man, Lachlan Start, in 2016.
Gary always wanted to stay on the farm but sadly, that was not to be. In 1974, he went to Forestry School in Creswick and from there, on to Melbourne University to finish his Forestry degree. He then worked for the Forestry, which became the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) as a Forester and spent two years in the 1980s negotiating with state government ministers and subsequently, implementing a superannuation scheme for DSE members. At the time, this was only the second scheme established in the state, the first one being the Victorian Police scheme which had been set up a couple of years prior.
Gary’s other love was aeroplanes and flying. This began with the air show held on the family farm at Wooroonook in 1960 when Gary was 5 years old and went up in a plane for the first time. In 1985, Gary’s grandfather Bill passed away and left a substantial amount of money to each of the grandchildren; this enabled Gary to gain his recreational flying licence. He then went on to gain his commercial licence and flew for a regional airline from Albury to Canberra and Melbourne for a number of years. During that time, he also became a flying instructor and updated and rewrote several of the flying instruction manuals.
Gary enjoyed his work as a commercial pilot before once again returning to the DSE. His responsibilities on returning were in the fire department, where he was responsible for all radio and communications across the state as well as being the aircraft fire operations manager for eastern Victoria. This involved employing water bombing aircraft including the Elvis helicopter when it was first brought to Australia from the USA. Many properties and lives were saved in the 2000s due to his diligence with aircraft deployment, radio communications and installation of temporary communication towers in isolated areas of East Gippsland during fire season.
In recent years, Gary and his wife Diane returned to Charlton to manage the Travellers Rest Caravan Park and in December 2021, Gary fulfilled a lifelong dream to travel to Canada.
Gary and Diane spent eight months staying with Diane’s daughter and family and travelling around Canada, going as far north as the North pole, returning home in September 2022.
Gary was a loving, compassionate man who lived a life of community service. He will be missed by all who knew and loved him.
