Under the Auld Pump: Season playing footy in Papua New Guinea memorable

Born: In Warrnambool on June 21, 1950.

Wife: Karen. Parents: Jack and Marj.

Education: Warrnambool Primary School before going to Warrnambool Technical School.

Sporting highlight: Would have to be being involved with the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club.

Brian, what memories do you have of your younger years?

They were wonderful times. I can vividly remember being a paper boy delivering newspapers to different houses around the streets of Warrnambool.

It didn't matter if it was pouring rain and really windy in the winter months, the papers had to be delivered.

I would have been 17 when I got an apprenticeship as a linotype operator at the Warrnambool Standard.

There were no computers back in that era. I worked with hot metal, setting up typed pages for sub-editors to read and check off.

The night shift workers, of which I was one, would finish work at The Standard's old building in Koroit Street and play six-handed euchre before going home in the early hours of the morning.

I ended up getting a job working for the Post Courier, which was the daily paper in Papua New Guinea. I played footy for the local club in a strong competition and I was loving my job in New Guinea when my dad Jack got in contact and said 'did I want to work in the family business, Guyetts Funerals?'

I finished playing footy in New Guinea in the 1973 season before coming home to Warrnambool in January 1974.

Brian, which football clubs did you play for?

I played in the under-17s at Merrivale before going to South Warrnambool, where I played in the under-18s and then I went back to play for Merrivale and then I played one season with Port Moresby.

When I came back home, I played footy for Warrnambool and was lucky enough to play in a couple of senior premierships with the club.

We had some great players at Warrnambool back in the late 1970s, including playing coach Daryl Salmon, Bob Giblett, Frank Lane and Peter Sheen. I took over as the playing coach of Warrnambool's reserves side and we won the flag in 1979 when we defeated Cobden.

My left knee was causing problems, so I ended up giving footy away. It would have been in the early 1980s that I helped set up women's netball in the Hampden football league with the support of the late league secretary Bernie Dowling and representatives from the clubs.

Let's talk about the funeral business. I would say you've noticed lots of changes in the funeral industry since you joined the business in 1974. Is that a fair comment?

Yes. I suppose the funeral industry is no different to anything else - there's always changes.

It's hard to believe back in the 1920s there were six funeral directors in Warrnambool. There was no refrigeration for bodies back at that time.

Funerals had to be held pretty quickly. History shows mourners would meet at the Warrnambool Hospital to pick up bodies to go to funerals and, if a body had come out of Melbourne, the mourners would meet down at the railway station and go to the funeral.

It's hard to believe that's how things happened regarding funerals in the early part of the last century.

My dad Jack set up our first refrigerator (about 2.5 metres by 3.5 metres in size) for funeral purposes at the old Timor Street premises in 1965.

Jack also set up a gymnasium at the back of the old laundromat, which was next door to the funeral home in 1975.

It was the only gym in Warrnambool at the time. There was a group of us, including Herbert Ballis and Bill Bolden, who used to work out in the gym called Jack's Gym.

Membership for the gym was $20 a year. The gym used to be open from 4pm to 6.30pm from Monday to Thursday, sadly it closed after 12 years because other gyms were opening in the town.

The Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club took over the equipment when it closed. Technology has played a major role in what happens with funerals now.

Mobile phones and live-streaming play massive parts in the industry. There are lots of people who view funerals through live-streaming. The live-streaming allows people to watch funerals when they have a chance, instead of turning up for the occasion.

Guyetts Funerals has been lucky over the years to have had loyal, long-time staff, including people like Adam Jones and the late Jack Daffy. There have been plenty of others too.

What year did Guyetts Funerals move from its Timor Street residence to 271 Raglan Parade, Warrnambool?

It was in late 2008 that we purchased the old McDonald's site on Raglan Parade, and it was a three-part process to open the site entirely.

We continually get people coming in to this day saying they can still remember when it was a McDonald's site.

It was a big decision to make the move but it's proven to be the right one. I would have to say it's the best thing we've ever done. We were crammed in down at the old Timor Street site.

There was limited space for funerals there but at Raglan Parade, we can accommodate 300 mourners.

We opened the main chapel in 2014 after setting up our office area and garages and storage areas. The Raglan Parade site is easy to get in and out of and there is ample car-parking space for mourners.

Where did the name Eastern Park come from when you named the home of Guyetts Funerals?

We called it Eastern Park because years and years ago the site was known as Eastern Dairy.

It's incredible to think that cows used to be milked and grazed in the paddocks in that area of Warrnambool where the main highway comes into the city now.

Brian, what year did you get involved with the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club?

It would have been in about 1992 when I took over as the president for nine years and I had a long stint on the committee. I've got wonderful memories of competing in events with Richard 'Boots' Keillor, Neville Brodie, Peter Cowling and the late John Stonehouse.

They were wonderful times. I still try and stay fit by riding the bike. I love joining in with a group of bike riders at the top of Mortlake Road each Saturday morning and going for a coffee after the ride.