Master mentor the late Allan Roberts spent his formative years in the rough and tumble Mallee farming district.

It was a tough upbringing, but it was to prove invaluable in later years - in a number of ways!

Like many young men during the outbreak of WWII, Allan falsified his age and enlisted in the Australian Armed Forces. He was the only officer in his unit to survive the battles between Australian and Japanese forces during the Kokoda Track Campaign. Sadly, his legacy was contracting dengue fever and malaria, and consequently a degenerative heart condition.

But when Allan returned home from the war, there was a telegram waiting for him. His mother had bought him a greyhound, which he had to pick up from a railway station.

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