Farewell Stephen R.

Thursday 24th July.

We checked out of the caravan park this morning, drove into town and parked the motorhome at our favourite parking lot while we went to Bunnings and Jaycar. Filled an empty gas cylinder at the caravan park prior to departure at the best price so far - only $13.10

Around 2:00pm we drove out to the Sunset Lawn Cemetery and parked under a huge shady tree, then got changed into respectable clothes to attend Stephen' funeral.

About 1/2 an hour later dozens of vehicles started to arrive, most 4WD Utes driven by Stephen's workmates from the Xtrata mines. Barbara's brother Rodney has arrived in Mount Isa this morning having flown up from Melbourne for the funeral. There were also a large number of people from the Mount Isa Bowls club where Stephen had been a very active member for the six years he had been in Mount Isa. Our best guess is that there were approximately 100 in attendance for the service which was held under an avenue of shady trees leading into the lawn cemetery.

The coffin was placed on a trolley in the centre of the roadway with a lectern to the side and 30 or so chairs in rows facing the coffin.

Stephen was an avid supporter of the Richmond Tigers so a Tigers AFL jumper was draped over the end of the coffin. Several people including his boss, the president of the Bowls Club and Caroline gave a short talk on his involvement with the local community and his dedication to his job as a superintendent in charge of the lead/zinc plant here at Mount Isa.

It was a lovely service and as the hearse containing the coffin moved off slowly into the sunset the Tigers theme song filled the air.

We then adjourned to the bowls Club for drinks and eats. The room was decorated in yellow and black (Richmonds colours for the uninitiated) with helium filled balloons of the same colours filling the ceiling space.

There is a section of the bar bearing a large sign "Steve Rooney's Sportsmen's Bar", with the Tigers logo and the words "Go the mighty Richmond Tigers".

Gail and I were invited to assemble in the centre of the bowls rinks with family and close friends to release dozens of these balloons while all the others circled the entire playing area. This ceremony was accompanied by the Tigers theme song played over the arena PA system.

It was truly a beautiful send off to a young man who had definitely left his mark in Mount Isa.

We departed Mount Isa direct from the wake heading east toward Cloncurry.

Darkness overtook us before we reached our planned overnight stop so we decided to pull into the Fountain Springs rest area. Wow - where odd all these vans and Motorhomes come from ?.

The large area adjacent to the highway was clock a block however we managed to weezle our way in to a spot for overnight.