Take a bow

In an era when populism and self-interest commonly trumps principles, the remarkable Ron Vickress – returned serviceman, teacher, director, poet, writer and raconteur – cuts an upstanding figure.

The mantra “deeds, not words” is not merely an empty platitude for this engaging 98-year-old. It is the epithet for a lifetime of service, acknowledged earlier this year by Armidale Regional Council (as joint Senior Citizen of the Year) and now a UNE Alumni Community Award.

That community service began in 1942, when the 16-year-old air raid warden was called up the night Japanese submarines were detected in Sydney Harbour. A year later Ron was enlisting in the Australian Navy, and went on to serve as a signalman aboard the mine-sweeper HMAS Pirie attached to the British Pacific Fleet.

“You signed up because your mates had signed up, and my dad had been a veteran of World War I,” Ron says. “There were no great acts of heroism or patriotism; we were just doing what we thought was right.”

The theatre of war profoundly shaped Ron’s subsequent attitudes and writing, but it is his contributions on other stages that have defined the man. From teaching at night schools, establishing swimming clubs and participating in surf life-saving to running amateur theatre and entertaining nursing home residents, Ron has “given back” wherever he has lived. He remains the oldest trustee of any Crown Land entity in NSW, in his role overseeing the Guyra Soldier’s Memorial Hall.

However, Ron’s values and independent thinking have often challenged “the establishment”. Despite a commitment to veteran’s associations across NSW, especially in Guyra and Armidale, Ron resigned several times from the RSL.

“Initially, in the late ’40s, because they wouldn’t allow Communists to join – they had fought in the war, too, and were among our mates – and then again when the RSL excluded people who hadn’t served overseas,” Ron said. “Those who served in Darwin when it was under attack had all volunteered and I didn’t think the RSL should have discriminated.”

By 1967, Ron was “completely opposed to war” and rejoined the RSL so he could wear his badge to Vietnam Moratorium marches, where he served as a marshal and bailed out arrested demonstrators. “I remember being confronted by a big sergeant on the other side of a barricade, with his campaign ribbons on, who told me I was on the wrong side. I replied: ‘That’s a matter of opinion’.”

Ron had even tried to enlist in place of his son during the Vietnam War. “It wasn’t just a gesture; I was prepared to go, but I was 42 and was rejected for being too old,” he said.

Doing what he thought was right also saw Ron protest apartheid in South Africa and, later in Armidale, open his home to any student of the Armidale College of Advanced Education (ACAE) and UNE (where he taught English and drama from 1972-85, completing a Masters of Education along the way) who was “battling along”. This forged enduring ties with the region’s Indigenous community, and when then Prime Minister Bob Hawke promised a treaty with our First Nations people in 1988, then failed to deliver, Ron personally boycotted the bicentennial “celebrations”.

It was earlier, while teaching at Ballina High School, that Ron had discovered a passion for writing, acting in and producing plays. It inspired him to enrol in a Bachelor of Letters (Litt. B.) at UNE, which he completed externally in 1963.

“I realise now that the Litt. B. provided an intellectual, academic approach to the arts of drama and theatre,” Ron said. “The course was a gift. It stimulated my interest in what would become 40 years of practice.”

When he wasn’t treading the boards himself, Ron was devising productions for students to perform in and forging a close relationship between the college and UNE through theatre. Some of his plays were first performed in the UNE Arts Theatre (including the first performance of his anti-Vietnam War play Crossing, in 1973).

Blessed with a fine memory, many of Ron’s experiences have been chronicled and/or referenced in the hundreds of plays, poems, novels and short stories he has written, directed and performed in. His naval service represented only a small chapter in his history, but still looms as a large backdrop.

“I live back there quite often,” said Ron. “And it’s only on reflection that I understand how I developed my views on a great many things.

“I’m often reminded of that Adam Lindsay Gordon verse ‘Life is only froth and bubble/ two things stand like stone/ kindness in another’s trouble/ courage in your own’. I believe in deeds and not words.”

Former UNE colleague and Armidale Dumaresq Council Mayor James Maher said Ron “immensely shaped” theatre studies at both the ACAE and UNE during his long and “exceptional” community efforts.

“Ron’s life has been one of service,” James said. “He is a man of integrity, vision, openness and transparency, with an enquiring mind and the courage to challenge what he feels is unjust.”

Only two serviceman of HMAS Pirie remain now, so Ron has stopped producing the quarterly newsletter he circulated among ship mates for 20 years. But every Anzac Day and Armistice Day he joins the crowd that assembles in Armidale, sporting his Farquharson tartan tie, in honour of his mother Hilda’s family.

“On those days I think about my father Charles Henry, but also the two brothers my mother lost during World War I – one of them in Bullecourt and the other, also in France, about a month before the Armistice,” Ron said.

He doesn’t go in for many protests – of war or otherwise – these days. “But I’m not sorry; I’m not apologetic for what I’ve done in the past. I just hold my tongue to avoid getting into arguments. Life’s too precious to be wasted on that.”