Wayne Geoffrey Dawe

Wayne Geoffrey Dawe 1956 – 2021

Wayne Dawe was a highly regarded plumbing contractor and business owner whose love of life and work was only surpassed by his immense love for his family.

Because he was an energetic, warm-hearted and loyal man with a wide circle of relatives and friends with whom he shared an enthusiasm for Australian Rules football, surfing, fishing and other outdoor pursuits, it was probably inevitable he would acquire a variety of affectionate nicknames. So he wasn’t just Wayne, he could also be ‘Dawerie’, ‘Wayeno’, ‘Pa’, ‘Old Man’ or even ‘Fossil’, depending on who he was with.

Wayne always lived life to the fullest, often from the deck of a surfboard or a boat, and was known for his outgoing personality, physical strength and natural ability to stay calm no matter what was happening. No doubt, these personality traits were the product of his childhood in the Harvey Estuary area as a member of the pioneering Dawe family.

Born in 1956, Wayne was the third child of Stan and Marjorie Dawe. Stan was a registered builder whose father had worked hard to earn the money to buy up large areas of land in the Florida area near Mandurah. The family owned so much real estate that locals began calling it Dawesville. The widely accepted name eventually gained official approval in 1980.

The Dawesville in which Wayne grew up during the 1950s and 1960s was a much simpler, more remote place than the Mandurah suburb it is today. When Wayne was born, Mandurah had a population of only about 300 and Dawesville was some distance away, down a dirt road.

Wayne grew up living an outdoor life that sounds almost unbelievably free and innocent now. He learnt to swim and surf, catch fish and shoot rabbits, ducks and kangaroos. Some of his early driving lessons involved driving the family Land Rover while his father Stan stood in the back shooting dinner for the family and one of his brothers held the spotlight.

All this freedom was balanced by a sensible level of discipline instilled in the children by Stan, who continued working as a builder and Marjorie, who owned and operated the Marjorie Dawe Tearooms close to their home. Young Wayne travelled by bus down the dirt road to Mandurah Primary School, where shoes weren’t compulsory in those days, and later by another bus on a better road to Pinjarra High School. Through all these years he was probably more interested in sport and various adventurous escapades than in serious schoolwork.

When he was about fifteen years old, Wayne left school and started his plumbing apprenticeship with Chris Ballantyne Plumbing. After finishing his apprenticeship, he worked for Charter Plumbing where he met Kevin Atkinson. Together, they founded Estuary Plumbing which had offices based in Mandurah and Bunbury .

Wayne eventually sold his share of Estuary Plumbing and worked still within the company for a while. After deciding he really needed to be his own boss, he started South Mandurah Plumbing and later on Dawes Plumbing.

Although he never sought public acclaim as the owner of a successful plumbing business, his focus on the job and dedication to doing nothing less than the best quality work earned him the respect of his industry peers.

The lesson he drummed into his apprentices and employees, who eventually included his sons, was that there is only one way to do something and that’s the right way. Because he never cut corners, he was one of those tradies that builders are always glad to have working with them.

With a career spanning some fifty years, Wayne had a rock-solid personal reputation and an impressive depth and breadth of experience and technical knowledge. He also had a very sensible perspective on life, which meant he never allowed his work ethic to prevent him from finding time to go surfing or fishing.

Wayne met his future wife Julie in May 1982 on a blind date arranged by a friend’s mother. It was the beginning of a lifetime partnership that saw them raise four children. Julie, the children and grandchildren all miss this generous, kind-hearted, hardworking man.

Wayne always stayed close to the area where had grown up and his spiritual home was the nearby Melros Beach, his favourite place to surf. Surfing was more than just an enjoyable leisure activity and played a major part in his life. He was outspoken about the need to protect surfers from sharks and would support anyone who was fighting for this cause. In 2017, he was one of 10 surfers awarded a Silver Medal for Bravery by Surf Life Saving Western Australia for rescuing another surfer in a shark attack at Gearies Beach in 2016.

In recent years, Wayne had been working in his son Peter’s plumbing business. He died in May this year following an infection from a cut to his hand.