George Wah Day tribute: Legendary Cairns Chinese-Australian farewelled

A legend of the Chinese-Australian community in Cairns has been remembered as a true blue gentleman and “as local as they come” as tributes rolled out after his funeral.

A LEGEND of the Chinese-Australian community in Cairns has been remembered as a true blue gentleman and “as local as they come” as tributes rolled out after his funeral.

Laurence “George” Wah Day, 91, died peacefully on June 28, leaving behind a long line of family and friends who remembered his selfless outlook, good humour and community leadership.

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch said he had gotten to know Mr Wah Day very well over the years and considered him a friend.

“He was an absolute gentleman and it’s a tragedy that we’ve lost him,” he said.

George Wah Day at the Chinese New Year celebration launch in 2006.

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“The Wah Day family goes back forever in these parts, back across the other side of the inlet to the Wah Day farm.

“They don’t get more local than the Wah Day family.”

The Cairns and District Chinese Association (CADCAI) issued a brief rundown of Mr Wah Day’s life as a first-generation Australian son of migrant parents.

George and Kwai Wah Day of Gordonvale outside the Hou Wang Chinese Temple during the Quock and Mary Lin Ding family reunion at Atherton Chinatown. Picture: David Anthony

“His father Wong Wah Day arrived in Cooktown in 1894, walked all the way to Cairns and later grew maize at Atherton,” it stated.

“When his farm was reclaimed by the Returned Soldiers’ Scheme in 1920 he returned to Cairns, purchasing land at East Trinity to grow fruit and vegetables and to raise a family.

George Wah Day, Val Schier, Dathne Wong Hoy, Lai Chu Chang and Ben Wong Hoy.

George and his siblings grew up working on the farm and have continued there with their own families growing sugarcane, prawns, bananas and lychees.”

The CADCAI life member served in the Army Reserve for two decades and was a strong advocate for preserving Australia’s Chinese cultural traditions and celebrations.

Historian Dr Sandi Robb said he had helped two non-Chinese women – herself and Cathie May – to gain PhDs through his mentorship.

She said he and wife Kwai Fong (Amelia) had always looked out for her family.

George Wah Day, Anna Wen and Terry Woo at the media launch of the Cairns and District Year of the Ox celebrations at Vertigo Bar in 2009.

Dr Robb shared one poignant memory of Mr Wah Day’s long-running battle with flying foxes that had taken a liking to his lychee crops.

“Unable to shoot them (which he wanted to) he used to sleep on the downstairs bare floor and every two hours get up in the night get up and go around the trees, scaring them off with a loud noise,” she said.

“He would repeat this for weeks while his wife slept upstairs. He was as tough as nails.

“So I am sad that this legend of a man, who had a foot in the past has passed on.”

Originally published as George Wah Day tribute: Legendary Cairns Chinese-Australian farewelled