By Mikayla van Loon
In a lifetime that has spanned 90 years, George McDonald has helped build the community of Mooroolbark in his 55 years living in the suburb. Recently celebrating his birthday, Mr McDonald has reflected on his greatest achievements and what it took to get to a point of creating a home for his family.
While living in Mooroolbark was starting to feel more like home for George McDonald and his wife Betty, homesickness had settled in.
Having brought his wife’s sister Vera over from Scotland to help, he soon realised that wasn’t enough.
“Of course I discovered when I was three months on the road, they had nothing to do at nighttime and they didn’t know anybody,” he said.
“So I went to the local church and said to the minister ‘you’ve got a church hall here in St Margaret’s Church, can I make a badminton court?’”
Outgrowing the number of members within three months, having the gumption to ask for what was needed, Mr McDonald approached the State government when Pembroke College was proposed to see if the local clubs could use the stadium for badminton.
Eventually outgrowing that within a year, in 1968 Mr McDonald set his mind to building a stadium but the funds was an issue.
By setting up a cooperative where members essentially purchased a share in the badminton courts for $10 each, the State government would guarantee a $90 pay back scheme to raise the funds.
Then known as Mr Pink’s Farm in Kilsyth which housed a great herd of cattle, the Lilydale Council offered Mr McDonald a portion of the land to build three courts.
Six months later Mr McDonald was back on the path of building more courts having outgrown the three. In 1976 another three courts were built and by 1982 the current 12 court stadium was completed – he regards it as his greatest achievement.
In the 1980s the Mountain District Badminton Association became the largest in Australia.
“I couldn’t believe it. Mooroolbark at that time was nearly full of English and Irish and Scottish people more or less in the early days [who needed something to do].
“So that was how we evolved in getting badminton and that was all because my wife was home sick and needed something to do.
“But that was the problem, there was nobody doing anything.”
Having helped his wife create friendships, Mr McDonald looked at doing something for his children, George and Audrey, by establishing the first Mooroolbark billy cart race in 1970.
“The billy carts were about giving them something to do and because we lived on the hill, they played with the billy cart themselves.”
Building relationships, finding friends and making a home was the catalyst for all the work Mr McDonald did in the Mooroolbark and Kilsyth communities.
This led to the establishment of the 360 Club and the Mooroolbark Senior Citizens Centre.
Everything Mr McDonald set out to do for Mooroolbark was backed by his long time friends Bev and Lindsay Trollope.
“We have stayed as friends from February 1968 until today. Our lives have intertwined in many ways over the 54 years, so much so we all had lunch on my 90th birthday on 27 March.”
Mr McDonald is still a pillar in the Mooroolbark community being the secretary of the Celebrate Mooroolbark committee.
When asked what his secret to making it to 90 was, Mr McDonald was as humble as ever in saying “at my party I said, ‘I have no idea how I got here’.”
