One thing you learn early to do in a small place is not to listen to rumours, so when I heard a rumour that a far-off neighbour at the top of Sproxton Lane had died in a motorcycle accident in Laos I did just that: I ignored it!
That neighbour was Maté Bitunjac, a keen fisherman who had come down from Canberra to retire at Nelligen. That was sometime in 2007, since when he had caught a lot of fish but also a lot of flak from busy-body neighbours which made him decide to sell up again in late 2021.
When the fires raged through Nelligen in late 2019, I went to his place inviting him to join us in a fire-safe shelter where several neighbours had sought safety in numbers. His reply, "I'd rather burn to death!"
He tried to sell his property at 3 Sproxton Lane, but without success, and so he took extended leaves of absence across Australia and across the Tasman in New Zealand. Until I heard this latest rumour - which I tried to ignore - I had not known that he had travelled to Asia at all.
That was until I discovered this facebook page of the Dickson Squash Club and these YouTube and tiktok recordings left for posterity by Maté.
No man is an island, entire of himself, and Maté's accidental death, at such young age and in such far-away place, diminishes all of us! R.I.P.
Postscript from Bay Post Examiner of 9 August 2023:
The deceased estate finally sold in December 2023 - click here.
