History tales with Tony Reneker from the Leeton Family and Local History Society

I call it seeing without perceiving, while the experts refer to it as inattentional blindness.

Without googling, are you able to name the park in Main Avenue at Yanco that you regularly pass by?

It is of course Waring Park, but how did it get its name?

Hector McPherson Waring, who would become known as Mac, was born in Collingwood, Melbourne on November 18, 1890 to Joseph Waring and Elizabeth Waring nee Ledger.

He was one of eight children.

Mac grew into a dapper young man, who was once described as a stylish dresser with two gold teeth, brown hair and blue eyes.

Mac left the bright lights of Melbourne to start a fresh life and would later brag that when he arrived in Yanco, his worldly possessions were able to be bundled into a swag.

He had led an exciting life, traveling throughout rural Victoria and NSW as part of a team of ballad singers and entertainers employed by Alberts of Melbourne.

In an early version of karaoke, the team would put the words of popular songs like I Love the Sunshine and Roses on a screen and the audience would join in the choruses.

There is evidence that Mac performed at Stony Point in 1915, but it appears he settled down in Yanco around 1917 where he was the owner operator of the Yanco General Store.

At some stage he met Elizabeth (Lizzie) Davis of Jerilderie and they had a daughter, Olive, in 1916.

They married in either Leeton or Narrandera in 1917 and had a second child Agnes later that same year, and a third daughter Ruby in 1924.

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Agnes would later marry George Gerdes of Leeton in 1940, while Ruby married Roy Chaffey at Yanco in 1946.

Mac and Lizzie moved away to Randwick in Sydney for a few years in the early 1930s, but they were back in Yanco by 1937 and he was elected onto the Leeton Shire Council for the B Ward, which was Yanco.

He became extremely popular due to his unequivocal support and advocacy for the Yanco village and was instrumental in obtaining major improvements for Yanco, including concrete kerb and guttering, footpaths, a new brick Post Office, extensions to the Yanco Hall and electricity to the train station.

He was also very generous behind the scenes, helping solders wives during the war when bills were difficult to pay and ensuring their children did not want for food stuffs of any kind.

It was said that many an early settler who rose from poverty to affluence owed this to Mac's generosity and assistance.

As he approached retirement, he traded in his swag for a car and caravan but tragically in September 1947, he became seriously ill and died shortly after in a Sydney hospital.

Following his death, the Yanco Progress Society petitioned the council to name the park in Yanco, Waring Park or change the name of Main Avenue to Waring Avenue in honour of Mac.

Some confusion and controversy followed and at one stage a motion was passed at council to name the park Gleeson Park after a Mr MJ.Gleeson.

In late 1949, that motion was rescinded and the park was officially named Waring Park and Main Avenue retained its name.

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