The coffin of former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer arrives at the Albury railway station. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Train driver Kevin Schultz has never seen anything like it. As a restored engine carrying Tim Fischer's coffin made its way to Albury, people stood along the track and in paddocks waving Akubras and Australian flags.

Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Albury Railway Station has seen the mighty, the dreamers and the greats of literature, royalty and politics coming and going for 130 years. Tim Fischer, blessed with an extravagant memory, could reel off their names: Robert Louis Stevenson in 1890, Rudyard Kipling the year after, Mark Twain in 1895, Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle in 1920, H.G. Wells in 1939, King George V when he was the Duke of Cornwall in 1901 and King George VI when he was the Duke of York in 1927.... None of them, however, ever made an entrance to the gorgeous old Italianate station in a manner quite as memorable as that of Tim Fischer himself on Thursday. Make that the late Tim Fischer. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video Fischer reached back to a happy memory of his childhood when he knew he was dying and wanted to ensure his exit would be unforgettable. Years ago he wrote of driving with his father from their Riverina farm at Boree Creek to meet the little rail motor, known to country folk as the “Tin Hare”.


“What joy as the rail motor with its big searching headlight came sweeping around the corner in winter; a quick whistle stop, and then off it would hurtle into the night,” Fischer recalled in one of his books about railways, a subject that captured his restless imagination for most of his 73 years. And so, with the end at hand, Fischer arranged for his own funeral train: the old “Tin Hare”, lovingly maintained by railway enthusiasts. People line the street in Albury after the train arrived carrying Tim Fischer. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The rail motor would carry his coffin from the station at The Rock, 100 kilometres north of Albury and not far from the old branch line to Boree Creek. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” said train driver Kevin Schultz. “All the way, people stood along the track and in paddocks and on the platforms of the little towns, waving Akubras and Australian flags. Thousands of people, all of them coming out for Tim.” And when the train, built in 1925, finally pulled to the platform at Albury and his coffin was wheeled out, his wife Judy Brewer taking it into her care, another thousand milled about.


The RSL honoured the arrival with a military ceremony - a catafalque party at attention, the Last Post and Reveille floating away on the cold morning air. The recital of The Ode. Fischer was a conscript during the Vietnam War, a second lieutenant wounded by rocket fire at the Fire Support Base Coral north of Saigon in May, 1968. Loading The explosion tore out a piece of his shoulder. His life was saved by a new flak jacket when shrapnel hit him in the chest, and so he lived to become leader of the National Party, deputy prime minister, ambassador to the Holy See, husband of Judy Brewer, father to Harrison and Dominic...and perhaps the most loved politician of his generation. But he could not cheat leukaemia. Australia’s political royalty gathered among thousands of ordinary citizens, old friends, farmers, military mates and all sorts to farewell Tim Fischer when the coffin, an Akubra balanced atop it alongside his medals, made it to the Albury Entertainment Centre for his state funeral.


The Prime Minister, Scott Morrison was there, and the Opposition Leader, Anthony Albanese, and the Governor-General, General David Hurley. Fischer, said Morrison, was one of a kind: a big man in a big hat, his big passions and big courage combined with a gentle and forgiving kindness, who was “no stranger to humility”. Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer was remembered at a state funeral in Albury. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The Nationals leader, Michael McCormack, attended with predecessors Barnaby Joyce, Warren Truss, Mark Vaile and John Anderson. Former prime ministers John Howard and Kevin Rudd came, too, and former treasurer Peter Costello. Fischer, it transpired, had not only arranged his last train trip. He had named those who would speak at his funeral, and he chose the music, too: The Battle Hymn of the Republic and Jerusalem performed by the local Murray Conservatorium Choir, and Amazing Grace sung by the son of a soldier who served with Fischer in Vietnam, tenor Thomas Strong. Lifelong friends Bill Baxter and Sandy Venn-Brown, who stood with Fischer and Judy Brewer at their wedding in 1992, gave a joint eulogy.

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