Horseman Kevin Collins remembered

Kevin died on February 21, just three days after daughter Brigitte married Josh McRae.

The jack-of-all-trades was well known publicly for his coach building and showing, a pastime he shared with his daughter Brigitte and sons Andrew and Harrison.

He devoted more time to the hobby in 1993 when he bought a draught mare and decided to build a jinker to take to the Shepparton Show, but the seeds of interest were sown many years earlier when he was a boy and his father started a riding school.

One of his tasks was to help with the feeding, watering and saddling.

Kevin was born on June 18, 1962, the son of Myrtle Ruby Scott and Kevin Andrew Collins at the Mooroopna Base Hospital, when his parents were living at Kilpatrick Ave, Shepparton, the oldest of six children.

His family moved to the Kialla settlement and he attended Mooroopna Primary School, before the family moved to Merrigum Rd, Ardmona, and then to a dairy farm at St Germains.

His earliest recollections are of milking cows, helping on the farm and looking after his younger siblings, as his parents had separated by this stage.

Kevin had aspirations for a football career and started practising with Lemnos at Princess Park, riding his bike the 26 km to Shepparton for training.

He played for Undera but as a result of an unfortunate incident with an umpire, was rubbed out for 10 years, effectively ending his football days.

He attended Shepparton South Technical School where he met a girl called Debbie and a romance began to blossom.

After schooling he tried his hand at rouseabouting, but did not take well to travelling and missed his home district.

Kevin returned to try his hand to a range of work including restumping buildings, hay carting and was even a clerk of the racecourse at Tatura but it was in a job at the Shepparton abattoirs where he met a man who played a key part in him adopting a job as a fencing contractor.

John ‘Tossa’ Osler helped him get set up with a trailer and tractor and Kevin applied his skills in making, repairing and improving things.

In 1986, Andrew John Collins was born and Kevin, in need of a new family home, purchased and transported the old family home from the Kialla settlement to St Germains.

Kevin and Debbie parted and a friendship developed with Kristine. They were married on August 2, 1991 and Harrison and Brigitte were born.

The purchase of the draught mare, Sally, set him on the road to coach building.

Starting with entries in rural shows, Kevin eventually got to the Royal Melbourne in 1997.

He was seriously "bitten by the bug" and the eventual purchase of a superb horse, Cobaw, led to the team becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Their partnership was one that compelled bystanders to pause and watch and Kevin never forgot to involve his children in the experience, from handing the horses to building the vehicles.

Kevin encouraged them to try everything and not give up.

Brigitte was not outdone by the boys, proving to be capable with the tools in the shed.

In her eulogy, Brigitte recalled the myriad of sayings that her father lived by.

She recalled his love of music and how sometimes when the music played and she went out to see him in the workshop he would grab her hand and dance around the workshop floor.

She respected him for his courage in standing up for her, and his insistence that she do the right thing by other people.

“Every school holidays we would be fencing, carting hay, working horses or at a horse event and as much as I disapproved of the work, at the time, I wouldn't change it for the world, now.”

Other kids would share their holiday photos and Brigitte would have ribbons and trophies from the latest show.

In 2018, the family home sustained major damage in a house fire, and in 2019 Kevin was diagnosed with a germ cell tumour.

It didn't stop him from successfully competing at the Royal Melbourne Show and winning Champion Delivery and Champion Turnout that year.

A funeral service was held in the sand yard of his St Germains home on March 2, attended by 350 family and friends.

His coffin was placed on his much loved rag-and-bone lorry which he had taken to many shows.