Yorketown volunteer honoured
News
Yorke Peninsula parishioner Archibald Julian Woods (known as Julian) was posthumously recognised with an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in this year’s Australia Day honours.
Julian was the great, great nephew of renowned scientist and priest Father Julian Tenison Woods.
He died on June 11 2024 at the age of 97.
The award was for his services to the St Vincent de Paul Society and the Yorke Peninsula community.
His daughter Veronica Brundell said that while the family was “over the moon” to learn that Julian had received the award, it was disappointing that he couldn’t receive it personally.
While her dad would have been “chuffed and honoured” to have received the OAM, she said at the same time he would have said there were “plenty of other people who deserved this before him”.
Julian in his final year t Rostrevor College.
A devout Catholic all his life, Julian was a student at Rostrevor College in 1943 when he first learnt through his religious education class about the St Vincent de Paul Society and its work for the poor and those in need of help.
It wasn’t until the early 1960s while living in Berri that he became involved with the organisation.
He was a member of the Society from 1994 to 2024 and he held positions of Yorketown conference treasurer for 12 years and president for four years.
Julian volunteered until his 95th year when he was forced to give up his licence due to ill health.
“Dad used to collect the clothing from the Vinnies bins at Yorketown and Minlaton and take them up to Maitland Vinnies shop for sorting once a month, often with a trailer as there was so much to take,” Veronica said.
“He did this from the time he retired back to the Yorke Peninsula in the mid-1980s. In the last ten years of doing this as he got older and it was getting too much for him, he roped in a couple of mates, Joseph ‘Sparks’ Harris and Don Hughes into helping him.
“They became known affectionately as the three amigos. They would make a day of it by having lunch at the Maitland Hotel or visiting friends for lunch somewhere in between.”
Veronica said Julian had the reputation in the parish as being the “oldest altar boy”.
“He loved teaching the children from St Columba School, Yorketown, how to be altar boys and attended every Mass he could in the area,” she said, adding he held many positions over the years on the parish council and Vinnies conference.
“Dad devoted his life to his family, Jesus and his community.”
