Vale Neil Treverrow

From Toowoomba last week came the sad news that Neil Treverrow has passed away

Neil left in 1968 to study Rural Science at UNE, eventually becoming an entomologist. He had a long career with NSW Agriculture, working in the Riverina and later in Lismore where he became an expert on the pests of tropical fruit. Along the way he did intensive fieldwork with communities in Malaya, Vietnam, Thailand and China ‘good fun, good food and sightseeing, and occasionally achieving a bit of agricultural advancement’.

Like many of us, Neil was a late rebel. Moving to Armidale meant leaving a household where an attempt to grow sideburns was met with the edict ‘No bloody pop stars in this house’.  At his work farewell he recalled arriving as a longhair who made snide comments about conformist bald headed old farts and finishing up as a bald headed old fart grumbling about longhaired dole bludgers at Nimbin.

Indeed, Neil took the hippy path further than most, embracing the profusion of hair, Herman Hesse and for a time, hallucinogens. This time in space was to prove helpful many years later. When diagnosed in 2005 with motor neuron disease by a tearful specialist, Neil coped with it calmly, thinking ‘wow, heavy trip man…’

Ignoring the text book stuff about denial and rage preceding acceptance, Neil lived his last three years to the utmost, fulfilling a childhood dream of visiting Egypt (during his years at Tech, he built a tomb under his house). His emails were a wonderful mix of serene reflection and wicked humour. In his last, he wrote ‘I am short of energy, and thankfully words of wisdom’.

Neil is survived by his wife Florence and four children.