A discoverer of the McKinnon's gold and Wonawinta silver mines in the Cobar District, he is survived by his mother Margery, brothers Tony and Richard, devoted wife Sally and two beloved children - Maxwell and Elizabeth. He turned 60 the day before his death.
Seventeen years earlier, whilst travelling on the job in Canada, his life was tragically devastated when he suffered a catastrophic brain injury that left him in a permanent, minimally responsive state. His young family, friends and the mining industry were robbed of what would have been his best years. One laments the relinquished possibilities.
Fears that the memory of a grand friend may have faded in the two decades since the accident were unfounded - remarkable characters stay in the mind.
A graduate of University of Sydney, he was a clever and giant of a man masquerading in a diminutive body.
Andrew was deliciously, indeed some would say, diabolically different. Defiant, disputatious, diligent, irreverent, fiercely honourable, funny, adventurous and impishly mischievous.
Full of wondrous contradictions: gregarious but sometimes taciturn, charming or infuriating, an erudite classical music loving scholar, avowed royalist, distance runner, mountaineer and maverick intellectual larrikin. He was a master at coining colourful, apt and acerbic nick-names for those he liked. He wore the harshest of retaliatory labels with theatrical flourish and glee.
Highly capable, meticulous, reliable and productive in work, play and family life. I have never met another person who was as determined, persistent and loyally committed to any task or person he accepted as a friend.
His physical fitness, intellect and personality were the ideal template for a successful field exploration geologist. Belying the modern paradigm of exhausted search spaces, the Cobar discoveries were made at or near to surface using simple, cheap and smartly applied classical methods. Shallowly hidden treasures in one of Australia's oldest mineral-fields not revealed until the end of the 20th century by the worthy sages of his EZ/Peko/North gang.
His family's heroic endurance, especially his incredible wife, in carefully tending the remnant of a heartbreaking accident for two decades are beyond exceptional. A transcendent example of the extraordinary resilience, ingenuity, and above all love that humanity at its best can achieve. His family has my profound respect and sympathies.
Two fine children and an unrelenting example of the success possible by determination, fearlessly independent thought and hard-work are his enduring legacy.
My old and deeply missed feisty friend, may you rest peacefully in a beautiful, mountainous place.
Vale Andrew Allan.
Doug Brewster is a Brisbane based mineral exploration geologist - brewster@powerup.com.au
FORUM
Andrew Allan - An indomitable will
THE mysterious vestige of the outstanding east coast exploration geologist, Andrew David Allan, died in Brisbane last week.
Andrew Allan was behind the discovery of the Wonawinta silver mine
A discoverer of the McKinnon's gold and Wonawinta silver mines in the Cobar District, he is survived by his mother Margery, brothers Tony and Richard, devoted wife Sally and two beloved children - Maxwell and Elizabeth. He turned 60 the day before his death.
Seventeen years earlier, whilst travelling on the job in Canada, his life was tragically devastated when he suffered a catastrophic brain injury that left him in a permanent, minimally responsive state. His young family, friends and the mining industry were robbed of what would have been his best years. One laments the relinquished possibilities.
Fears that the memory of a grand friend may have faded in the two decades since the accident were unfounded - remarkable characters stay in the mind.
A graduate of University of Sydney, he was a clever and giant of a man masquerading in a diminutive body.
Andrew was deliciously, indeed some would say, diabolically different. Defiant, disputatious, diligent, irreverent, fiercely honourable, funny, adventurous and impishly mischievous.
Full of wondrous contradictions: gregarious but sometimes taciturn, charming or infuriating, an erudite classical music loving scholar, avowed royalist, distance runner, mountaineer and maverick intellectual larrikin. He was a master at coining colourful, apt and acerbic nick-names for those he liked. He wore the harshest of retaliatory labels with theatrical flourish and glee.
Highly capable, meticulous, reliable and productive in work, play and family life. I have never met another person who was as determined, persistent and loyally committed to any task or person he accepted as a friend.
His physical fitness, intellect and personality were the ideal template for a successful field exploration geologist. Belying the modern paradigm of exhausted search spaces, the Cobar discoveries were made at or near to surface using simple, cheap and smartly applied classical methods. Shallowly hidden treasures in one of Australia's oldest mineral-fields not revealed until the end of the 20th century by the worthy sages of his EZ/Peko/North gang.
His family's heroic endurance, especially his incredible wife, in carefully tending the remnant of a heartbreaking accident for two decades are beyond exceptional. A transcendent example of the extraordinary resilience, ingenuity, and above all love that humanity at its best can achieve. His family has my profound respect and sympathies.
Two fine children and an unrelenting example of the success possible by determination, fearlessly independent thought and hard-work are his enduring legacy.
My old and deeply missed feisty friend, may you rest peacefully in a beautiful, mountainous place.
Vale Andrew Allan.
Doug Brewster is a Brisbane based mineral exploration geologist - brewster@powerup.com.au
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