By LAUREN BURNSIDE Jim was born in Nathalia Victoria on March 20, 1935 as Ronald James Burnside – the youngest child of Olivia Kathleen and Alexander Mackay Burnside. His older brother Ted passed away and Max and Mary have survived Jim. He also had several half brothers and sisters including Violet Little and Helen Barker, who have passed away also. Jim described himself is not having much use for schooling and left two months before his 14th birthday. He went to work for his father who was a builder and stayed working with him until his father's death just a year later. In a conversation with his grandson Ben, Jim stated that he went a bit wild for a bit and missed his father terribly. He went droving in the Riverina and worked on several farms around the Gooram area, then fulfilled his national service responsibility from the age of 19 for three years. At this point, he started to date Val and they married in January of 1959. At the time of his passing they had just celebrated their 65th wedding anniversary. Jim and Val commenced their married life in a cottage at Larneuk in Gooram where Jim worked as a farmhand. Daughters Lauren, Cherie and Kathryn(Kate) were born over the next five years. Moving to Euroa in 1963, Jim and Val ended up living in the home in Scott Street that was originally built by his father and continues to be the family home to this day. He worked for his brother Max for a time driving trucks and went on to own several Bedford and International trucks that he drove throughout Victoria, the ACT and New South Wales as a cartage contractor. Over his working life he found employment driving trucks, running the Golden Fleece depot in Euroa then working at the Euroa Timber Yard. He went on to manage the Shell depot in Seymour and for three years prior to retirement, drove with Mobil (Petrogas). Jim joined the Lions Club at the age of 40 and as a community-minded person, many of his activities stemmed from that membership. Many in the town of Euroa will have benefited from his vigilance in cruising around the town with the EUROA5 number plate making sure that all was in order – “just keeping an eye on things,” he said. He would go into the pharmacy to chat to the girls – stirring them up – or pop some newspapers over to Shirley at Brady and Kibble for her bird’s cage. Selling Lions Mints up in Binney Street would take so many hours because Jim would need to chat with everyone that came along. He just wanted to be involved. All of his daughters at one time or another had to go with him to collect the many cans that people left out for him. He would often pull over on the side of the road to rescue a lonely can. While he was still able, he would walk the streets with the bag to collect and squash the aluminium cans which raised cash for petrol to fuel Euroa Lions Club equipment such as wood cutters and pumps. Over the many years he saved the town streets and recycling bins of more than 20 tonnes of aluminium cans. Known as the Ring Pull King, Jim also diligently removed the ring pull off the cans which contained small amounts of titanium to contribute to the fundraising efforts in support of prosthetic limbs for landmine victims. With about 3,500 ring-pulls to a kilogram, he delivered more than 50 kilograms that he had collected for the cause. Upon retirement, Jim and Val travelled around every back road of Australia five times with their trusty camper trailer and old brown Land Cruiser. He kept a diary of everything that they saw and did and a note of all the fuel that he put into it. He enjoyed his trips to all parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory and Queensland, and as Val put it: “With the 16 stacker of CDs we heard every Slim Dusty song many, many, many times over.” When she suggested that they listen to a different type of music he allowed her to play just one of her songs before he told her that was enough. Even in his last couple of years, Jim's memories of his travels, what he saw and what he did remained very vivid in his memory and he loved to relate his stories to whoever would listen. One of the highlights of his trips would be meeting up with singer Ted Egan, cracking his stock whip and playing Slim Dusty CDs... and letting out the odd yodel. Taking on a dare or stirring the pot was a part of Jim’s character. A few would remember him riding a horse through the North Eastern Pub just to prove a point. Kate recalls that she used to play pool regularly at the Middle pub with her father. If there were any eligible type blokes around, Jim would offer Kate’s hand in exchange for a blue heeler pup, much to Kate’s embarrassment. Lauren’s now husband caught on to the idea and brought in a toy blue heeler when asking to marry her – but told Jim he was only interested in the older daughter. He would say that his life was not much and that there was a lot of tough times, but the town of Euroa and the Burnside family will never be the same without Jim Burnside. As a father to three daughters, 6 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren. One thing was for sure – he was loved well and gave all that he could. Rest in Peace Jim.
