For the love of family and footy

By Tina Seirlis

VALE – Alan John Stephenson
(11 May 1944 – 26 June 2023)

For the locals in our towns either new or long-term, a sense of belonging is created through the comfort of those ever-present familiar faces we see as we go about our everyday business. They are the people who keep our towns running whether through business, school, sport or volunteering. Whether we know them well or just via a passing nod and a ‘good morning’, they provide us with that reassuring sense of home and community. A visit to our favourite café, a visit to the grocer, the footy club, the pub, and of course getting up early on those painfully frosty Saturday mornings to grab the best bargains at Darley Market.

It was here that while shopping for bargain plants or foraging for pre-loved treasures, that you may have come across local larrikin Alan Stephenson, who helped run the market at the home of his beloved Darley Devils (thankfully sharing the same song and colours as the Pies), for over 20 years and initially alongside his friend Jock Wright.

Husband to Melita, father to Scott and Travis, father-in-law to Tricia, poppy to Rachel and his four cherished grandchildren, we’re told Alan lived every day to the full. Growing up in Melbourne’s suburban south-west, Alan enjoyed school but had to leave at age 14 due to family circumstances. From here, as with many back then, he started to build his life through hard work, being employed at a meatworks, a vineyard, and as a farmhand. He later discovered his love of horses which brought him to Inglewood where he could work alongside them undertaking training and grooming.

It was here in Inglewood he met the love of his life Melita, and although he proposed after just three weeks and was sensibly refused, after 15-months of courting as it was called back then, they finally became engaged and were later married on 28 March 1970. Two children followed and a move to Rowsley in 1983 provided the life they had always dreamed of on the land. Like many newcomers to our beautiful Shire, nature and wildlife provided food for the soul.

With two active sons to keep busy, Alan became involved in the Darley footy club dedicating many hours as a volunteer, initially as goal umpire and later as team manager, all while working on the property, and undertaking shift work. Alan shared a love of travel and adventure with Melita who he called his Lady, traversing Australia, making many friends and at one time going along with the joke after being mistaken for The Bushtucker Man.

From hosting Wednesday drumming nights in winter, telling his grandchildren he rode dinosaurs to school, running Darley Market, appreciating big family gatherings around the bonfire, and booming out ‘Carn the Devils’ at the footy, Alan’s larger than life love of family and community will always be remembered.