Richard Knight is a name very much associated with the Mooroolbark Miniature Railway as a founding member, but the honour of an OAM was bestowed upon him for his service to the whole outer east.
Recognised for his 44 years as a B-negative blood donor who has made 162 donations, his transportation of over 2000 patients as a voluntary transport driver, his 45 years of service as treasurer for the railway and nine years as treasurer of the Mooroolbark Men’s Shed, Mr Knight said his service has combined all the things he enjoys most.
“I’ve done a lot over my life, I suppose, so it’s nice to be acknowledged,” he said.
As a young man, Mr Knight was attracted to numbers and finances, noticing a skill for keeping everything in balance.
“I initially started out as a 15-year-old looking after the finances for the Waverley Senior Scout Group and then went on to the rover scouts, and was also the treasurer there. That led me to my career,” he said.
Pursuing accountancy as a career, Mr Knight fell into a role with Eastern Health, looking after all the assets and planning the budgets for the five hospitals.
“It’s a bit of a challenge, finance, if it’s like doing Sudoku or something, you know when you’ve got the challenge to make it all balanced and look beautiful and pretty. So that’s what I was very good at in my career,” Mr Knight said.
So in 1979, when the then Lilydale Shire Council purchased a five inch gauge locomotive, track and some carriages, Mr Knight saw an opportunity to combine two of his passions – trains and finance.
Initially filling a spot as auditor on the railway committee in 1980, when the inaugural treasurer left after just a few months in the role, Mr Knight stepped in and never looked back.
“My hobby is building miniature railway locomotives. So I’ve finished five and I’ve got three more, some of them are taking nearly 30 years, but I’m still persevering with them.
“We always had trains, since I was about eight years old. Even little train sets when we first started, I’ve still got them here at home, so I’ve had them for more than 60 years, that’s my hobby. That’s what I do. It’s what makes me get out of bed in the morning.
“Building a little locomotive you’ve got to overcome problems, if something doesn’t fit properly, you’ve got to go and re-machine it or re-work on it sort of thing to get it done.”
In 45 years as a member of the miniature railway, Mr Knight has seen it go from a patch of dirt in Mooroolbark to a well-loved community attraction, adored by children and adults alike.
“The number of people we have come down there on our normal monthly run day wasn’t many to start with,” he said.
“We used to only have a donation, but now that we’ve expanded, we’ve got over a kilometre of mainline track, the number of people who come on the run day to have picnics and barbecues and birthday parties for young children is just unbelievable.
“Probably 500 people would come through on a normal run day.”
Seeing the children’s smiling faces, especially coming to know Mr Knight’s locomotive as the “Barbie train” because he places her as the train’s driver, makes it all worthwhile.
And if decades of volunteering at the railway as treasurer wasn’t enough, in 2016 Mr Knight joined the Mooroolbark Men’s Shed in that same role, something he continues to do today.
“It’s very good for men that are all retired and all sitting at home doing nothing sort of thing, to all come together.
“We have some brilliant men, cabinet makers, fitters and turners, and we’ve even had lecturers at Box Hill TAFE college training carpentry apprentices who are all part of the Mooroolbark Men’s Shed and some of the products, the craft items that they make are absolutely beautiful.”
But more than that, Mr Knight said both clubs provide incredible friendships.
For Mr Knight, giving back to the community started as a personal response and desire to help but quickly snowballed into joining his passions together.
“When my wife had two children, we had twins, she required blood donations. This was in 1973 and in 1977 I thought, ‘we’ve got to repay what we’ve used’ and then became a blood donor.
“The rest of it, I think, is that I enjoy donating. I enjoy the finance, the accountancy. And I enjoy the miniature railway and the comradeship of both the men’s shed and the railway club.
“It’s a great honour. I didn’t expect this to be quite honest. I don’t know who’s nominated me, but obviously someone has.
“44 years donating blood and being the treasurer for any organisation is a long time, more than half of my life. So I guess it is nice to be acknowledged by my peers.”
