COLIN ‘Springa’ Leak might not have been the public face of Sunraysia Daily, but for almost 40 years he was the man who had his fingers on the pulse of the news - literally.
Colin joined the Daily as a temporary linotype operator in the mid 1960s; a position that lasted the next 37 years when he, like many others in the industry’s production chain, had to make way for new technology.
However, a man always with an eye for opportunity, Colin landed himself a short-term filler role as a newspaper delivery driver (something technology had not replaced), giving him a total of 45 years at the paper.
But as mourners heard at his Merbein memorial service on December 13, retirement was simply a gilt-edged invitation for Col to ramp up his passion for fishing, ignited after his sister Rosemary gifted him a deep-sea charter off South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.
Enthused by the trip, he booked the Merbein Angling Club on a group charter, handling all the reservations, numbers and assorted details, putting together the perfect package for his mates.
Until he realised he had booked everyone - except himself.
That gaffe still lingers on at the Club, not unlike the cliche tale about the one that got away.
In his early years, Colin developed a need for speed, jumping on anything with two wheels and a motor, whether it was for a race at the speedway or simply cutting up a dirt track just for the hell of it.
While his poor mother Rita forced herself to the track on a regular basis, she hid herself in the car every time because she couldn’t bear to see her boy hurtling around South Australia’s Rowley Park speedway.
Which was understandable when he came off his bike during an impromptu ‘scramble’ over the Paringa cliffs; and when the local paper reported his spill, the journalist gave him the tongue-in-cheek nickname Colin ‘Springa’ Leak.
And it stuck, with many people forgetting Colin’s real name over the years as he became known to all and sundry as Springa.
It wasn’t Springa’s fi rst brush with the media, however.
In 1956 as a 16-year-old, he was on the frontline of the Murray’s great flood, working with his father Jim and a small army of other Renmark locals to sandbag the town’s levee bank in a bid to save it from going under.
The highest level of the official gauge at Renmark’s Wharf read nine metres and an extra one metre was added, with the words “After this, all out”.
At the flood’s peak the whole gauge disappeared underwater, with the official 1956 peak eventually determined at about 10.2 metres.
An event with saturation media coverage, Springa’s career seemed a little predestined.
Delivering the eulogy, Springa’s brotherin-law Kym Boxall said the undeniable highlight of the speed fiend’s life was his 1975 trip to watch Phil Crump - the Mildura Marvel - competing in the pro speedway circuit.
“Travelling to the UK and Europe to follow Phil around was ‘the’ big event for Springa - he was still reminiscing about it this year, 45 years later,” Kym said.
Like all of us, Springa had his fair share of pain and loss in life, especially the death of his life partner Anne Douglas in 1995.
Kym said Springa could not imagine replacing her “and he remained on his own for the rest of his life”.
Springa was made a life member of Mildura Motorcycle Club, Merbein Angling Club and Merbein Lions.
Kym said whatever Springa took on, he did with genuine passion.
“If you were lucky to be Spinga's friend, you were a friend for life,”
In 2019, Springa’s health took a turn for the worse and , needing more specialised cancer treatment, he crossed to SA with a small suitcase packed for a week or two.
Sadly, COVID-19 left Springa trapped on the wrong side of the border and despite his best efforts, he would not see Merbein again.
“He did manage to convince one doctor to get him on a Royal Flying Doctor Service flight to Mildura and nearly got away with it,” Kym said.
“Until the doctor discovered there was no family there, and no-one to meet him at the airport to pick him up and provide the palliative care he would need.
“It was a nice try, typical Springa.”
But it would be Springa’s last hurrah. He died 10 weeks later.
And, like the man himself, his ashes have covered a few kilometres.
Some are with his parents in Renmark cemetery, some at his celebrated lucky spot on the banks of the Murray, some with Anne and, after his memorial service, the rest in his
beloved Merbein.
