A tribute to Clement Lake: Navy veteran, Grasstree Beach local and Mackay resident

Always known to give his all and turn up when asked, the father, friend and former navy man sailed the seas as a skipper for two decades and worked till his last moments to pay off debts, spending as little as $56 a week on food.

Clem with his daughter Antoinette, her sister and two grandchildren.

A beloved skipper, father, grandfather and navy veteran sadly lost his life after a 10m fall from a bridge near Marian.

Clement Lake, 73, was on shift at 3am when it is believed he fell between the gap of the George L Vickers bridge which separates the railway line and road in an incident which left his family shocked.

Clem loved to spend time with his kids and take them fishing.

“Police showed up at my door just before 8am in the morning,” Mr Lake’s daughter Antoinette Lake said.

“I was making school lunches.

“My first reaction was please don’t tell me.”

Clem was a fun loving and enthusiastic man.

Antoinette is one of Mr Lake’s four children by different partners.

Mr Lake met Antoinette’s mother in the early 80s when he was 32 and she was 16.

“Obviously it was not a conventional relationship,” Ms Lake said.

“But it worked.”

The two were together for several years before separating.

Clem joined the navy at the age of 17 beginning a lifelong love affair with the ocean.

Mr Lake grew up near Grass Tree Beach before enlisting in the Royal Australian Navy at the age of 17 becoming a fisherman after his service.

“I remember when I was about five or six and we went out and got to go walking on the reef,” Ms Lake said.

“We’d go fishing and watch him pull sharks from the water.

“It was cool and I got to enjoy and touch all the marine life.”

A proficient fisherman Clem caught all sorts of fish on the reef and showed them to his children.

After living in Bowen for one year Mr Lake returned to the house he’d bought in Mackay and eventually left the life of a skipper, working in traffic control and odd jobs as a labourer.

“He had a lawn mowing business, helped people out with dump runs … anytime anyone needed a hand,” she said.
In 2023 at the age of Mr Walker was involved in an accident on the Peak Downs Highway while picking his grandson up from school.

The 2023 crash near Walkerston left one woman seriously injured. Picture: Heidi Petith

The crash resulted in 67 year-old Ozcare worker Ann Seaniger sustaining a permanent brain injury and a judge ruling that Mr Lake was at fault.

“There was one thing he did that he just had to live with,” Ms Lake said.

Ms Seaniger forgave Mr Lake after he plead guilty and Mr Lake continued working to pay his increased insurance premiums, fines and other expenses.

“He dealt with it, he sorted it all and paid all those debts,” she said.

“He was willing to take responsibility regardless.”

Mr Lake’s neighbours with whom he shared a good relationship with have been mowing his lawn in his absence, under the assumption he’d gone to jail.

“They found out about it just the other day so they’re quite upset,” Ms Lake said.

Clem worked many different jobs in his later years from mower to truck driver.

Mr Lake, who’d always been a hard worker, took on more in the aftermath of the crash, with Ms Lake discovering he only spent roughly $56 a month on groceries to make ends meet.
“The problem was that sometimes hard workers get taken advantage of,” Ms Lake said.

Clem was a fun loving and enthusiastic man.

Mr Lake’s traffic control company would send him out to jobs at all hours, asking him to stay late if need be and Mr Lake rarely said no.

“If he just finished a job and went home and they would ring him up and tell him they need him in the same day period he’d go,” she said.

“That’s not a lot of rest for an old man.”

The circumstances of Mr Lakes passing are still under investigation by Workplace Health and Safety Queensland.

Clement Lake worked many jobs throughout his life, supported his family and took responsibility for his actions in the moments when it mattered most.

He is survived by four children, three grandchildren and all those who loved him and remember him as a hardworking, caring and giving man.

Originally published as A tribute to Clement Lake: Navy veteran, Grasstree Beach local and Mackay resident