28 July 1928 – 23 November 2025

Words by Councillor Phil Owen

Many in our community had met Bill Griffiths and will have greatly benefitted from that and subsequent meetings.

Bill was born in Liverpool, England on 28 July 1928. He had a twin sister and two brothers. Bill’s early boyhood was an unimaginable struggle. Bill ran away from home, was homeless and left to fend for himself at the age of eight, depriving him of early education and family life.

Bill’s family circumstances, working life and life in general between the start of WWII and the early 1990s in England, Germany and Australia (including getting an education, two marriages, five children, finding lost family, many occupations and immigrating to Australia in 1957) would fill a book!

Fast forward to the early 1990s when Bill and wife Fay returned from overseas to live in the Brighton Municipality at Herdsmans Cove. Noticing the waterfront reserve needed love and attention, Bill organised a working bee to clean up the foreshore in the area now known as Swan Park. So began Bill’s volunteering journey – many great things in the community began to happen with Bill in the driving seat.

‘Pete’s Community Work Shed’ evolved in the old Bridgewater Fire Station shed in Sorell Street, Bridgewater, with funding from Brighton Council, Rotary and Housing Tasmania. Pete’s Shed gave young people an opportunity to learn skills they otherwise would not have mastered. There were classes in woodwork, metalwork and bicycle repairs, and students from the local high school made props for their annual eisteddfods.

Among Bill’s impressive accolades was The Pensioners Club that addressed the loneliness and isolation age could encumber on the elderly in the community.

Bill was awarded the 2002 Citizen of the Year, a nomination for Australian of the Year in 2004, and received the Pride of Australia Award for Mateship in 2006. He was presented with the Commonwealth Recognition Award for Senior Australians and nominated for the 2007 Pride of Australia Awards for his work with the Pensioner Club.

You could say Bill’s crowning moment was his role as ‘Pageant King’ for the years that the Brighton Christmas Parade travelled with huge excitement and community involvement from Cove Hill Shopping Centre to the Civic Centre in Green Point Road.

Bill, you were an inspiration to many – a gentle, loving family man. You were respected and will be long remembered by your community. Rest in peace.

Acknowledgement: Mary Eleanor Natural Funeral Care