Tim McKenzie

I first got to know of the gracious support work of this great man when he was playing his cello behind me when as members of The Colac Chorale were singing in the Shire Hall .
" A pleasure - the instrument sounds best when its played to sound and reflect the human  voice" he offered .
I was just overwhelmed by how beautifully he played,  and how great that instrument in his hands performed.


What did we deserve to have this man playing here? ,,I thought . We would , after that , see him on his flying visits to play in Warnambool as first violin or whatever role in  the  orchestra and Prom and other concerts there .
A natural and captivating teacher,  he had the key role in inspiring our son to play piano and perform for others --
 Tim  brought so much joy, excitement and learning  to any music . I remember  him  explaining how a concerto was designed to feature an instrument ; making for me , all that strange language of music so much more interesting to this cowboy. 
 
How else would you explain his friend Russell Holloway buying  him a $5000 banjo to play at our Otway Concert to honor our  Forest Industry forebears at Forrest ? The dual-ling banjos ( the two of them) have never been played better .

Tim composed and  played  his own guitar music backing tracks for videos on the Otways by Jim Speirs ( mentioned below ) and with his friends , joined in setting up the music for their famous fun bush dances and weddings . Didn't we have such fun  the days we danced at Johnnos. So much to give and so freely given -

ON THE ONE HAND then Tim was
 typical Country bachelor -- kind thoughtful and precious to many  BUT too busy to spend time  with someone special  , except he was not only too busy to go out , when he was going out , he was going out to entertain others  . How we  were inspired by him , and how we will miss him

and ON THE OTHER HAND
His hands were also ever busy making wonderful things with metal and complex circuitry in the big shed at home . (Video of one of the machines is featured earlier)
The Blokes group were fascinated that he not only built a single to three phase transformer but would wire all sorts of motors and brilliant circuitry to them  . 
The shed was home to many innovations that should have won awards for both insight design, precision and complexity

Like his music- he stunned us with his attention to detail . making perfect anything we shared with him ( like the singing and dancing)

We will all,  miss him so much . He will be at least playing now with people who appreciate his standard.  Leaves his wife and son  He died unexpectedly  last Tuesday,  ( more videos to follow)