One of the early talents behind the Gympie Music Muster and the Woodford Folk Festival, Ted Egan was many things.
As a singer he was an Australian folk music legend, but was also a successful author, historian, former Northern Territory Administrator and a champion of Aboriginal issues, from land rights to football.
He died this week at his Alice Springs home, aged 93.
His wife, Nerys Evans, paid tribute to “a big and generous life.”
“It is with sadness but also with great pride that Nerys Evans and the Egan family mark the passing of our beloved partner, father, grandfather, great grandfather and best mate,” a family statement said.
Another Muster performer Beccy Cole said she was heartbroken at the news.
Ted Egan was an immensely popular Muster performer in 1987, 1995 and 2007 and had been involved in the early days with original Muster founders, the Webb Brothers.
A Muster official said he was “one of the very few people who successfully bridged the gap between ‘country’ and ‘folk'”
Woodfordia managing director and co-founder of the Woodford Folk Festival, Amanda Jackes described him as “a national treasure in every sense – a man of immense generosity, integrity, humour and heart.”
The festival, which has always had enthusiastic support throughout Wide Bay region, began as a thought-bubble around a Maryborough kitchen table, and re-established at Woodford after outgrowing its original Maleny Showgrounds home.
The festival became a Ted Egan project as well, when he planted the “500-year bunya tree” at the first Woodford festival, as a symbol of “continuity, hope and the long arc of imagination.”
“It was Ted who first inspired what became our 500-year plan, speaking of cultures and communities that think in centuries, not seasons,” she said.
Current Northern Territory Administrator Hugh Heggie said Egan’s legacy “is woven into the Territory’s cultural celebration, its music and storytelling and its spirit of caring for one another.”
“A State Funeral will be held to honour the life of Northern Territory legend the Honourable Edward (Ted) Joseph Egan AO,” our sister publication, The Centralian Today has reported.
In his youth in Darwin, Mr Egan was a prominent sportsman,” Prof. Heggie said.
“During a 20-year career with the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Mr Egan worked mainly in the bush, employed as a Patrol Officer, Reserve Superintendent, District Officer and teacher at various outback schools, including in remote places.
“In 1960, Mr Egan became one of the pioneers of the out-station movement when he persuaded the Commonwealth Minister for Territories, Paul Hasluck, to support Aboriginal people who wanted to live in decentralised places away from main settlement areas.”
Mr Egan was a member of the first Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation.
He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1993 “for Services to the Aboriginal people and for the interpretation of Australian cultural heritage through song and verse”.
He is remembered as a pivotal figure in Northern Territory football, especially as co-founder and inaugural captain of the Tiwi Islands’ St Mary’s Football Club.
