Humans in St Leonards

John Pace, known as ‘Pacey’ by many, is one of the true characters of St Leonards; larger-than-life, taller than most, a hard-worker with a staggering love of beer, a three times husband and fiercely devoted father, a larrikin with a huge heart, and now dodgy lungs and a spent liver. No doubt everyone who has met ‘Pacey’ will have a story to tell, but this is his. 

John first started coming to St Leonards as a kid. His parents had a block of land in Lakeview Crescent where they camped during holidays, and later built a house. ‘It was a great place for kids during holiday time, there was the pinball parlour and the Big Store where everyone met.  We had holiday friends, cousins and friends who lived here’. 

At the time and for many years John’s family lived in East Keilor after migrating to Australia from England in 1969 when John was four years old. His extended family followed both to Australia, and to St Leonards. John’s father originally came from Tripoli in northern Africa and returned to visit many times. John doesn’t remember much about his early years in a town outside of London and feels no inclination to visit.  John’s only sibling, his sister Janet passed away in a motorbike accident at the age of twenty-three.  As a family ‘you never get over it’.  Years later his father died of asbestosis. His mother remains in Melbourne in a retirement village and John hopes she ‘will come to live nearby eventually – when she is a little less independent’. 

St Leonards has always provided ‘a sense of belonging. It is a place that doesn’t judge and there have always been people here from all walks of life, from different places in the world and different circumstances. It is a good place – despite the facebook sooks who complain online about anything and everything, instead of talking to people directly’.  

Being a teenager on holidays in St Leonards meant hanging about the Salt Lagoon and the old tip, driving paddock-bombs and motorbikes and generally being ‘ratbags’.  In one of the many ratbag stories he could tell, John in the age-old rite-of-passage act of jumping off the pier, almost took it too far (as only form four boys can do) when he decided to ‘bomb’ one of his teachers – could have even been the principal – from Niddrie High who was innocently walking along the pier. However John spectacularly miscalculated and landed on a bollard before dropping into the water stunned, winded and unable to move.  It turns out it was the teacher who jumped in to save him from drowning, seemingly unaware or graciously ignoring the fact that John had tried to bomb him. Awkward. 

After leaving school John took up an Instrument Technician apprenticeship and worked out of Essendon Airport with a company that eventually became Ansett Technologies. He worked there for ten years, before the pilot strike and the offer to take a package. The airline ceased operation in 2002. In the meantime John introduced his apprenticeship friends to St Leonards, a place they’d never heard of before, and many ended up moving here.  

He met his first wife Nicolette ‘the love of my life’ at the St Leonards Pier. Nicolette had grown up in St Leonards and attended St Leonards Primary School. They married at St Mary’s Church in Geelong, with a reception at the Geelong Travel Lodge and honeymoon at Hamilton and South Molle Islands. They have two sons, Michael and Mathew, and the whole extended family remains ‘really close’ – two more marriages later. John still proudly refers to Carmine Di Crescenzo – one of Humans in St Leonards earlier stories – as his father-in-law; looking out for him and making sure he has a good freezer of meals, and encouragement not to drive too far.  Meanwhile, Nicolettedoes the same looking out for John’s mother in Melbourne. 

After Ansett, John went into the production of incubators for Emus and Ostriches – which might seem like an odd occupation now but it was a booming industry at the time – exporting to Malaysia, China, Thailand and New Zealand. He had a farm in Riddles Creek and as it was a new industry then, they had to make a lot of it up as they went along. It was also highly profitable, however after only a few years the industry went pear-shaped and the birds were suddenly worth nothing. John’s assessment of Emus is that they might just be ‘the stupidest bird alive’ largely due their ridiculous fascination with anything shiny which will see them come running for miles to check it out, which is just as well because they cannot be herded. John kept one of the incubators which he has converted to refrigeration – one of the many advantages of being a technician. After the Emus and Ostriches John’s technician skills found a new use with Monsanto (the company infamous for the production of the herbicide roundup, and its link to cancer and subsequent banning by some countries) and remained there for four or five years. 

John met his second wife in Melbourne, through a St Leonards friend. They married on the beach at Angelsea, had their reception at Truffle Duck in Fyansford, later moved to St Leonards and have two daughters Hope and Alicia who he is enormously proud and protective of. 

‘Having kids is life changing – it is no longer all about work and money.’ As a family, and often with friends, they have over the years holidayed everywhere is Australia; camping, fishing and yabbying. John has a third son, Nathan who is ten years old and comes to stay for school holidays.

John moved to St Leonards full time at the beginning of 2000. He didn’t have a job, but a mate’s father was a concreter and he went to help out for a few days. The few days continued, and John learnt the trade and started doing a few extra jobs on the side and thinking about how he might improve the work. After a while he went out on his own, bought machinery and equipment and started his own company, and before long was employing six people full time, and extras when needed.  Being known for his work around town and trusted meant ‘being able to leave equipment on site and vehicles unlocked, without them ever being knocked off.’

In 2010 John was sentenced to ten months in jail on charges related to an assault on another man, who had threatened his family. Soon after going to jail his wife left him and St Leonards with their daughters.  He did not see the girls for eighteen months and was seriously concerned for their wellbeing. Missing them terribly, he launched into an almighty battle for custody through the Family Court. He got the girls back and immediately enrolled them at school, worried how they’d go after having been to nine different schools in the meantime. ‘It was the best thing ever to get them into St Leonards Primary School.’ 

Community is important to John and one of the things his concreting business was known for was ‘looking after the town.’ He did work for the school, sports clubs and community groups for free or low cost, employed people who were in strife to give them a chance at turning their lives around, and quoted the same price no matter who you were – someone on the Esplanade or someone a few blocks back. He wound the business up toward the end of 2024. In the meantime John had married for a third time but he said it was very ‘short lived so there’s nothing much to tell’.

After a life-time of smoking, staggering drinking habits and years of working in dirty industries, John says his ‘lungs and liver are now pretty stuffed’ and physical work is no longer possible. What was first thought to be lung cancer turned out to be a mysterious ‘something else’, possibly a form of asthma though John is not quite convinced, and his ‘liver is gone.’ John gave up cigarettes two and a half years ago, but says it’s a habit that dies hard. Though he won’t have a cigarette he says the desire remains strong. He wishes money gained through taxes on cigarettes could be spent on more research into how to stop smoking – as he acknowledges, most people who smoke wish they didn’t but find the prospect of hanging out for a cigarette for the rest of their life pretty grim. He gave up alcohol eighteen months ago when nose bleeds that wouldn’t stop landed him in hospital for two nights and this meant no alcohol but as he was well aware ‘as an alcoholic, giving up suddenly is seriously dangerous’ so he was put on valium to help ensure the seizures and other side effects didn’t occur.  John remains alcohol free, and in the process has discovered an appreciation for the occasional glass of non-alcoholic bubbles – a gift from Nicolette. He says the ‘addiction to alcohol is nothing like the addiction to cigarettes’.  

But having been a hard worker all his life, John finds it difficult to completely give it up. He hasn’t quite figured out how yet, but till then he is happy to help with recommendations and put people in touch with the various trades’ people.  Meanwhile, he keeps company with his loyal dog ‘Stinky’ named ‘for obvious reasons’ and a sheep called ‘BaBa’ who was meant to be fattened for eating five years ago and will clearly continue to enjoy a life getting fat on anything that tries to grow in the garden. His daughters live at home with him and he runs his youngest around until she can get a license. Then, he’ll buy a new car and give the girls the old one. He is also ‘looking out for a house to buy for the kids’ (in St Leonards of course) and most importantly, keeps looking after his health because ‘I want grandchildren, so that’s as good a reason as any to stick around’.

One more ratbag St Leonards story 

The St Leonards Hotel used to be open seven days a week, and every day after work – and some days in between – John and his concreting crew would head there for a few beers and a feed.  One time they were on their way when they noticed smoke. As they were getting closer. sure enough, a pending disaster – the smoke was coming from the pub. Running in as others were running out, John found the source of the fire in the kitchen and isolated the power, before checking to see if there was anyone still inside. Meanwhile the crew and good friend Dean O’Neil grabbed the extinguishers and put the fire out. By the time the fire brigade arrived – which wasn’t long – John, Dean and the crew were sitting up at the bar, pretty pleased with their efforts, enjoying a beer.  The restaurant was closed for a while after the fire but there were still toasted sandwiches and dim-sims to be had at the bar; so it was back to business as usual at the St Leonards Hotel. John adds that eighty percent of his business came from the pub – ‘people knew where to find me’ – so he was very invested in it remaining open – besides the beer of course!