Jack Yuille: Family pay tribute to ‘one of a kind’ with a personality ‘bigger than life itself’
A family man with a smile that lit up the room and a personality bigger than life itself. That’s how the family of Forster car-crash victim Jack Yuille will remember him.
Mid-North Coast
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A family is mourning the death of a budding Forster bricklayer who one day had dreams of building his own home with his two bare hands.
The affable, affectionate and fun-loving son of Clayton and Kathryn Yuille, Jack Yuille, was tragically killed last Thursday when his ‘pride and joy’ – his Holden Statesman – burst into flames after colliding with two other vehicles on the Forster-Tuncurry Bridge.
Witnesses at the scene, including two off-duty police officers, rushed to his aid to help but were quickly overpowered by the heat of the flames and the heaviness of the smoke.
The 23-year-old, who was the only person in the car at the time, sadly couldn’t be saved.
The drivers of the two other vehicles were transported to hospital, while paramedics treated the two off-duty policemen for smoke inhalation.
Investigating officers are now piecing together the circumstances that led to the incident, and why the 23-year-old’s vehicle crossed into oncoming traffic.
Despite the heartache of their loss, Jack’s family are remaining strong, just like he would have wanted them to.
“The biggest thing I’ll miss is him just walking in the door and annoying everybody,” Jack’s older sister, Maddy Yuille, said from the family home in Wingham.
“Putting the barbecue on, sitting down to listen to music … it’s just the little things … I’d take all of that again any day.”
Maddy, 26, described her younger brother as the ‘male version’ of herself.
“Me and my brother were pretty much the same person,” she said.
“He was literally the male version of me … we were very similar.“
“In our growing up, our parents moved us to the country so Jack and I lived a very different lifestyle chasing cows, swimming in creeks, going adventuring and riding motorbikes.
“We shared a lot of memories and times together … driving paddock bashers and motorbikes. When we used to see each other, we’d just picked up chatting again like it was yesterday.”
Jack’s love for his sister Maddy was strong, but the bond he shared with his Dad, Clayton, over their mutual love of motorcars and fishing, was special.
“The love of motorcars was our biggest thing,” Clayton said.
“Jack and I were just cars, anything on two or four wheels.
“Fishing too. I bought that boat for him, but he never got to use it … we were supposed to go and use it on the weekend. We had a very close bond. Anything to do with motorsports, and NRL, we were tragic NRL Eels fans.”
Clayton recalls the time that Jack stormed into their Wingham home with a box of beer over his shoulder like he was the life of the party that hadn’t started yet.
“I’d be sitting here all nice and quiet, and Jack would come down with a carton of beer on his shoulder and say ‘hey hey, I’m here! And we’d be like, ‘oh, G’day Jack,” Clayton said.
“He was just a larrikin, he had a personality bigger than life.”
Outside of cars and fishing, he also had a great love for music.
“Anything really … Elvis Presley, rap, he loved his rap … but never anything orchestral,” Clayton said.
“As long as it had a good tune.”
Maddy elaborated on his love of music, citing ‘Deep House’ as another favourite.
It was a trait Jack’s mum, Kathryn Yuille, lived with but didn’t love.
“We were always telling him to turn it down,” she said.
But while there was a clear wild side to Jack Yuille that his family so vividly describes, there was far more to him than that, as sister Maddy adds.
“He was just an individual that you would never meet anywhere else … he was his own person,” she said.
“Jack looked up to Dad … he was his walking shadow, everything that Dad did, he did.”
He spent a few years working for his father as a painter, but wanted more than anything to be a bricklayer so he could build his own home.
“He worked with me on and off,” Clayton said.
“But his ambition was to be a bricky … that’s what he really wanted to be so he could build his own home.
“I just employed him because he was my son, but he needed more in his life, some discipline.”
Shortly after parting ways with his Dad’s painting business, Jack took a job working as an oyster farmer in Forster.
“We spoke to his boss yesterday,” Clayton said, “and they saw a future with Jack in their industry.”
“They said they could train him up … he was a visual learner, like me, and they saw a big future with him. He was excited about that.“
Kathryn said he was a diligent, hardworking son who put everything into being the best version of himself.
“He was really committed to work,” she said.
“He was diligent and a great worker. He’d wake up and have his lunch organised … he was quite methodical like that.
Aunt Alison Russell said she ‘loved him like a son’.
“Jack just loved life,” she said.
“He enjoyed doing most things, watching a game of footy, he really loved that … and I suppose the things he did love he was very passionate about.
“He loved his family and would do anything for them. I loved him like a son“
Although he is now gone, Maddy said at least he died in something he loved more than life itself.
“He definitely passed on in something that was his pride and joy,” she said.
“He loved that car, and if he was to spend his last dollar on that car, let me tell you, he would.“
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