Obituaries Australia

Mr. John Dodds Mack, who had been living in retirement at Mt. Macedon, Victoria, for some years, died at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital on 13th May at the age of 76.

The late Mr. Mack was the son of Joseph and Helen Mack, of Berry Bank, Vic., and a third generation member of a well-known pioneer pastoral family of the Western District of that State, but he lived most of his life as a pastoralist in Western Riverina. He was a veteran of World War I in the 8th Light Horse Regiment and participated in the landing at Gallipoli, where he was wounded. Later he saw service in Syria, Palestine and Egypt and returned to Australia in 1919. His early experience of the land was gained in jackerooing back of Broken Hill, and after the war he established Royston in the Hillston District in Western Riverina. There he became a leading pastoralist and a devoted citizen.

Sir Douglas Copland writes of him:—"John Mack breathed the spirit of the outback as few people I have met, and it was a joy to listen to his quiet voice recounting triumph and disaster during his long and varied experience. Though I knew him only a few months in his ebbing tide, I feel as though I have lost a life-long friend. He was the stuff of which heroes are made, and his record in war and peace was one of facing the odds however menacing and difficult, and weathering the storm until fortune smiled again. A quiet, unobtrusive but adorable character, he has passed into the silence leaving memories of friendliness and courage among his cavalry mates in war and his many companions of the outback over a long and pioneer life on the land."

The late Mr. Mack is survived by his wife.