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Vale Peter Raymond Warner

The macadamia industry has been saddened by the recent death of Peter Warner, who passed away on April 13 while attempting to cross the bar of the Richmond River at Ballina in his yacht.

As founder and chairman of Tree Carers Pty Ltd, Peter and his team have been offering tree pruning services to macadamia growers on the Northern Rivers since 2011.

His love for all things macadamia is expressed in his most recently published book Twilight of the Dawn where he writes:

“It was not until I moved to the sub-tropical Northern Rivers of NSW that I became drawn - like a scattered handful of iron filings to a giant magnet - towards these native evergreen trees known as macadamias.”

As Dash Forghani, Managing Director of Tree Carers described:

“Peter named chapter eight of his third book ‘Sea of Trees’ where he brought together two of his great passions in life, the sea and trees.”

Age was no barrier for Peter, as at the ripe old age of 90, he was still pruning the macadamia trees at NSW TAFE Wollongbar three days before his passing. 

“Our friendship goes back to 1985,” Dash said.

Two years ago, Peter asked Dash to join him at Tree Carers and they worked closely together ever since. 

“Peter started his journey into nuts in Mildura exposed to almonds,” Dash said.

“Somehow, he ended up in the Northern Rivers and was so fascinated with the area, the beauty and spirit must have captured his attention and heart. He started his work casually, making friends and gathering more customers through word of mouth and the friendships developed.”

Peter lived life to the full. The son of Sir Arthur Warner, a businessman and politician, Peter ran off to sea rather than work in his father’s business. From 17 years of age, he developed his love of the ocean sailing around the world. 

Peter also competed in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race in his vessel Astor, winning line honours three times in 1961, 1963 and 1964. In 1963 he placed fourth in the Transpacific Yacht Race, a 3,580 km trek between California and Hawaii.

It was this passion that saw him turned into an international hero in 1966 when he rescued six Tongan boys, who had been stranded on a deserted island for 15 months. 

In his own words, Peter said, ‘a very tearful operator came back on the phone…he said, it’s amazing, they’d been given up for dead. Funerals had been held and you found them.’

Mano Totau was one of the boys Peter rescued from Ata Island.  Now an elder gentleman, Mano’s friendship with Peter grew strongly and remained so throughout the years.

Peter and Mano started working on macadamias together in 2013 and as Peter explained the work and purpose, Mano’s interest in macadamias grew.

“He told me this work was important for future generations,” Mano said.

Mano’s memories of Peter are of a very capable man who always helped people. 

“He tried to teach me everything to the best of my ability and I followed really closely,” he said.

“That’s why we stayed together for so long as we were both interested in what we were doing, not only macadamias but also sailing.”

Saving the Tongan boys from their deserted island wasn’t the only rescue Peter and his crew performed. In 1974, the four-member crew of the Sospan Fach was sailing from New Zealand when they were grounded on the Middleton Reef, 514 kms south-east of Ballina.

For the next six weeks, the two men and two women managed to survive, sheltering in a wrecked Japanese fishing longliner they found about 1.6 kms along the reef from where their vessel was starting to break up.  They found rusted hooks in the longliner and used them to catch fish to eat.

One of the crew of Peter’s vessel had seen intermittent flashes coming from the Japanese wreck while off the Middleton Reef. He pointed it out to Peter and they used an outboard powered dinghy to travel the eight kilometres into the reef and to the hulk. All four were rescued and in good health.

Peter leaves behind his wife Justine, son Peter, two daughters Janet and Carolyn and seven grandchildren.

Image (top): Peter Warner founded Tree Carers Pty Ltd in 2011, offering tree pruning services to macadamia growers in the Northern Rivers.
Image (bottom): Peter Warner became an international hero in 1966 when he rescued six Tongan boys who had been stranded on a deserted island for 15 months. 

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