Mourners were invited to place the sheaf of wheat from the last harvest on Butchers Farm, as a reminder of the blessing of Bill’s life and the personal connection the natural resource manager had with the land.
This was where Bill O’Kane turned to find solace and purpose, his daughter Alannah recalled.
In May last year, while he was undergoing immunotherapy following a cancer diagnosis, daughter Bridget saw him drench 200 sheep and then go on to crutch a few more.
“That harvest was a feat of endurance, one that will always amaze me, and completed with the support and assistance of his farming community in Katamatite,” Bridget recalled.
“On the Saturday before he died, he was looking at sheep feeders online for the farm.”
Christened William Joseph O’Kane, Bill was the fourth child of Joseph O’Kane and Carmel Hearn.
His daughter Alannah told mourners at the St Brendan’s Catholic Church funeral service on March 11 how he walked home from school for lunch, rode horses and worked on the farm.
Bill was a bright kid at school and loved sport.
He attended Prep to Grade 6 at Katamatite Primary, initially went to the St Joseph’s convent in Cobram and then boarded at Champagnat Catholic College in Wangaratta for Forms 3 to 6.
While in Form 5 he went to the Dookie Debutante Ball, where he met his future wife, Marian Lawless, who was a guest of her cousin Denise Frederick.
Bill was 17-and-a-half when he finished secondary school and moved to Melbourne in 1973. He studied science at Melbourne University.
“One of Dad’s favourite lines and maybe the one he is most known for is ‘first year uni was the best three years of my life’,“ Alannah remembered.
He continued his interest in football when he moved to Melbourne, playing with the UniBlues under-19s and for Heidelberg in the Diamond Valley League.
In 1979, ‘Katty’ won the premiership and Bill was awarded best-on-ground.
The Katty pub still has a picture on the wall of a red-bearded Bill O’Kane.
In 1982 he married Marian and the twin girls followed in 1986.
After his 10 years leading the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority, Bill went on to chair the Shepparton Foodshare and Leading from Within organisations, and in his later years thoroughly enjoyed being a grandfather, frequently introducing his grandchildren to the delights of farm life.
“If he was going to give a course on being a Poppa he would say: cook bacon, avoid discipline and own a few tractors,” Alannah said.
Bill O’Kane was diagnosed with cancer last year and died on Monday, March 7, surrounded by family.
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