Reg Fazackerley, born 18 July 1893 on the Tasman Peninsula [Tasmania] was one of eleven children. He attended school until he was eleven and built his first boat aged 16, a 25 foot vessel called Zoe.
Reg’s first trade was as a mechanic and he worked on Model T fords and at the Mercury Newspaper in Hobart.
During World War Two he was a foreman at the Commonwealth Shipyard, Prince of Wales Bay. After the war Reg moved on to the Hobart Marine Board and worked as a linesman tying up boats on the wharves at Hobart’s Selfs Point.
In the 1950’s Reg retired and began full time boat building to satisfy demand for his high quality vessels. In the late 1970’s Reg built his last dinghy aged about 84. (Reproduced from a reference published by the Maritime Museum of Tasmania)
Tribute by Michael Hodgman QC, Member for Denison (Tas) Tuesday, 17 May 1983 in the Federal Parliament of Australia.
Mr HODGMAN(6.18) —I should like to pay a tribute in the national Parliament to a very great Tasmanian who passed away last Saturday. I refer to Mr Reginald Fazackerley, who was born in 1893 and who was, without doubt, one of the best known and highly regarded boatbuilders ever to come out of Australia’s maritime State. I want to refer to his long and distinguished career. As you will note, Mr Speaker, he died at the age of 90 years. I think there would be many honourable members in this House who would either know of some of his work or, indeed, there may be some honourable members in this House who were actually involved with some of the vessels which he built during his career.
Mr Fazackerley left school at the age of 11 years and built his first boat at the age of 16 years. That was in 1909. He was particularly expert in the building of small boats and dinghys and in the use of huon pine and King Billy pine. He had a very long and distinguished career as a boatbuilder but also had been very much involved in motor vehicles and was a top-notch motor mechanic. He was a very great sportsman. He became involved in cycling. He also started in Tasmania-in Hobart, in fact-a roller skating rink and he owned a gymnasium.
During World War II he was drafted to the Commonwealth as a shipbuilder at the Prince of Wales Bay shipyard and it was in that period that he built many of the lifeboats and small hospital ships which were used in Papua New Guinea. It has been said to me that probably many hundreds if not thousands of Australian servicemen owe their lives to those little boats which were built in Hobart, Tasmania, by Mr Reg Fazackerley and the staff he had working under him. He then worked for the Hobart Marine Board as a full time foreman and when he retired he took up work again as a full time boatbuilder.
It is one of my most pleasant memories that as a very small boy I sold tickets at the Sandy Bay regatta raffling huon pine dinghies. Those tickets were sold at one shilling each. The dinghies in those days were valued at about #50. Today such a dinghy would be worth several thousand dollars. To give Parliament an idea, a huon pine suite, that is table and chairs-at one stage one was proposed for the Lodge; the new occupant might be very interested in having some genuine Tasmanian timber in the Lodge, some beautiful huon pine-would be valued at over $8,000. Reg Fazackerley made a number of boats which he then donated to charities, regatta associations and the like.
I do not frequently in this House pay a tribute by way of an obituary to a person who has passed from the scene. But I think I am speaking on behalf of thousands of Tasmanians and many people in other parts of Australia in paying tribute to this man who was a great craftsman, a person who loved the water, a person who was a master in working with timber, and, as I said, during a long and distinguished career made hundreds of dinghies and vessels which were used both for pleasure and at times for national defence, particular in 1942.
Mr Fazackerley lived at Duke Street, Sandy Bay, right in the heart of the Federal electorate of Denison. He was well known and widely respected and with his passing Tasmania loses a very great son, one of whom it could be truly said: He made it and he made it in Tasmania.