Richard Clive Minchin was born October 4, 1944, the second child of Roma and Philip Minchin.
He was better know as Dick, spending all but 10 of his 77 years in the region.
Dick’s youngest child James remembered asking his father why he and Dawn, having six kids aged from about seven to 12, thought it was a smart idea to have another one.
He broke out into a cheeky grin, and said: “It wasn’t my idea, it was your mother’s — she said we needed one more to help glue the family together.”
James told the congregation at one point they had a kid in every year of high school, and I was just starting out in primary school. “How the hell they managed to bring us all up and work their respective jobs, and find any time to do anything else, is completely beyond me.”
He described his father as a man of intense and focused passions, and when he became all engrossed with something — cars, radios, tractors, boats, cameras, printers, drones and dune buggies — he went all in.
He also spoke of him as a clever business man, citing Riverina Belting, a conveyor belt repair and replacement company.
It was initially spreadheaded by regular Gambler team member Dan McMahon, and has for the past 20-odd years been managed by Dick’s son-in-law Simon.
When Dick was about 10, Roma moved the family to Moama to a beautiful home called Rathillet. Dick attended school in Moama and then went onto the tech school, but school wasn’t for him.
Dick had a passion for all things fast, cars, boats, anything that moved really.
Dick, Don Treacy and Noel Milgate to name a few, started preparations for the Rich River speedway, which was unveiled in The Riv on August 30 1971. The speedway was to be built at the bottom of a giant sandpit on the Milgate property known as Milgate’s Pit.
It was a community project to get the speedway up and running and finally on October 29, 1972, saw the first of many races held at the speedway with drivers coming from Melbourne and regional Victoria. Dick and his first wife Rosita raced their cars at these events.
A couple of years after the passing of first wife, Rosita, he decided to give up car racing.
He opened a fuel depot, where the new police station is in Echuca, with Bob Sage.
In 1977 Dick met Dawn and they married in August 1978, creating their own version of the Brady bunch consisting of six children, which in 1980 expanded to seven with the arrival of James.
Echuca Bearings started in 1979 at 127 Pakenham St in Echuca, but soon outgrew the location and moved to Heygarth St. It eventually settled on the Murray Valley Hwy and is now in the hands of Christine and Simon Norris.
Dick purchased the family’s first ski boat in the late 1980s, and soon after he got heavily involved in ski racing.
Dick first got into ski racing from his new neighbour once the family moved from Rochester out to Latham Rd in Echuca, Bruce Cox.
Their first memories of Dick and ski racing was when he and daughter Christine towed Lester Freemantle’s boat Moonshot to the world titles in Darwin around 1991. Not long after he owned a 17-foot Lab with a Yamaha engine on it.
Founding team members included his daughter Christine and Nicole Mitchell, as well as all the Welch family — Leo, Jackie, Jai, Ben and Zac, and Dick’s close mate Dennis Rowbottom.
Other regular team members were Rochester’s Justin Grey and Dan McMahon, the Hamilton sisters Karen and Jo, as well as the likes of Bryson Lloyd, Christian Apps, Brett Williamson and Justin Cadden.
Dick’s favourite skier remained the late, and great, Ian Baker.
Anyone who knew Dick would know he never did things by halves. He was a competitive beast and always looked to improve, he left no stone unturned.
As the crew improved, so did the equipment. Dick swapped the Lab out for a Bullet and named it The Gambler. During the course of his career he then had a concept and finished his time in another lightweight 18-foot Bullet.
All Dick’s boats were named The Gambler, this name was well respected in the ski race fraternity and you always knew you had to be on your toes to beat this crew.
Dick would never say no to towing a kid and gave many skiers — boys and girls — their introduction into the sport.
Dick had a real soft spot for the social women’s class especially in the rivers were he could tow the girls in the morning, then Jock and whoever partnered him at the time in the afternoon.
Leo said Dick clearly had a good rapport with his family doctor. In this era, to have a license you needed a medical, one criteria of the medical requiring you to undertake a colour blindness test.
Son Leo said he was not sure how Dick passed the test, because he was colourblind.
He told those at the funeral he was not sure whether he was totally colourblind, but certainly in the case of channel markers at Sydney and Grafton he couldn’t tell the difference between green, red or yellow.
Eventually he retired from racing and found the camera.
Photography was Dick’s passion for the past 20-plus years.
Whether he was out gold prospecting somewhere in the Simpson Desert, or photographing old pubs at Innaminka, it didn’t matter to Dick — as long as he was deep in the dry, barren heart of the country, he was happy.
Dick loved his tractors and stationary engines.
He had his eye on this vintage tractor that Joe Altera had in his junk yard, but would never sell. Joe passed away and Dick finally got to purchase this tractor from Joe’s estate.
His passion for travel, saw he and Dawn head off regularly. Even in hospital he was plotting his next trip away in 2022, which included the Finke Rally, as well as trip to the beaches along the Great Ocean Road with his grandson Josh.
His greatest love was his family.
Dick did everything for his family, his children and grandchildren.
He was so excited to meet his youngest granddaughter, Genevieve prior to going into hospital.
He leaves behind his wife Dawn, his seven children — Sally, Amy, Fiona, Antony, Christine, Michelle and James — plus 10 grandchildren ranging from 33 years to eight weeks and six great-grandchildren.
