Brian came as a “Little Brother” on board of the Otranto 1956.

Left: Otranto

Brian was seventeen when he undertook the journey to come to Australia with the Big Brother Movement. After arrival in 1956 he was sent to the Calmsley Hill training farm. The first years he worked in Warren and later settled in Gilgandra together with his wife Ann. They have raised seven children.

Known locally as Mr Coo-ee – Brian received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for his service to community history, as co-organiser of the Kookaburra March and the Coo-ee March re-enactments in Gilgandra.

“I have lived Coo-ee since 1965,” Bywater says proudly of the subject that has consumed much of his adult life, prompted him to move towns, and whose mention can still bring him to tears. “There’s hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about something that occurred with the Coo-ees.” A century ago, as the Great War expanded and word of the dire situation in Gallipoli filtered back to Australia, two brothers in Gilgandra decided to make a personal war contribution from the comparative isolation of their rural NSW home (SMH, 2015 The great march on (smh.com.au)

Below: Brian Bywater, Sydney Morning Herald, June 2015

See images and story here:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-28/2015-cooee-march-reenactment-through-nsw/6893012

26 Jan 1998 – AUSTRALIA DAY 1998 HONOURS – Trove (nla.gov.au)

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