In a dusting of snow, Graeme Frazer and his younger brother Norman about to leave their property for Yarra Public School about 1965-66 when Yarra was a railway-stop settlement with two service stations straddling the Hume Highway, just south of Goulburn. Photo: Frazer family collection.
Goulburn High School’s class of 1976 are remembering their classmate Norman Frazer for his gentle ways and inspirational achievements.
Norman died early on Friday morning in Melbourne after a five-year battle with melanoma. An aeronautical engineer with British Aerospace, he worked up until three weeks before his death, aged 66.
The youngest of three sons of Ted and Rose Frazer, Norman was only 20 months old when his father died of a brain haemorrhage, leaving their mother to single-handedly raise the young boys.
They lived at a rural settlement, Thornford, 22 km south of Goulburn on their sheep grazing property ‘Stillwater’.
One of the smaller ‘cocky’s farmers blocks’ amalgamated into the Frazers’ 485 hectares was once occupied by the family of Miles Franklin, who at age 17 wrote My Brilliant Career while there.
Norman’s eldest brother Ian recounted him being captivated as early as age four by model aeroplanes. This fascination progressed to flying model aeroplanes from a short control line and later radio-controlled models, casting the dye for what shaped the remainder of his life.
Following the closure of Yarra Public School which he had attended for five years, Norman switched to West Goulburn to complete his primary education.
A lifelong friend from those early school days, Peter Weaver remembers the dapper new boy’s arrival with his mother Rose. “I always remember Norm very neatly dressed in school uniform; he had a little brown port, he looked the part,” Peter said.
A piano teacher, Rose had already broadened his education with music lessons which led Norman to picking up the violin after mastering the piano and becoming a fine musician. He joined Goulburn maestro Dr Paul Paviour’s orchestra and in later years several other community orchestras.
At Goulburn High School from 1971 to 1976, when Frank Chattaway was principal and Jack Plews deputy principal, Peter remembers Norman excelling in the higher grades in science, mathematics, geography and English.
“I can recall in a higher maths class Norm picked up some mistakes in the actual textbook,” he said. “Some of the books had the answers in the back, but not showing the workings out, of course. There might have been a couple of questions where Norm had done the actual calculus or analytical geometry or fairly complex questions and I think he picked up mistakes and the teacher was a bit bemused as to why the answer was wrong in the book.”
Ian, Norman and Graeme Frazer at a Goulburn parkrun in March 2024. Norman nudged the elite level as a marathoner in his younger days and once ran from Crookwell to Goulburn. Years later with a running mate he covered 150 km for a successful church fundraiser. Photo: Frazer family collection.
Outside of the classroom, two high-profile ultramarathoners George Purdon and Tony Rafferty fired Norman’s imagination when they came pounding through Goulburn in national endurance events.
A formidable high school cross-country runner at the time, Norman grew into a tall, lean athlete with the stamina for marathons that stayed with him for life.
Finishing high school as dux and having obtained his pilot’s licence at the Southern Tablelands Flying Centre, Norman then studied aeronautical engineering at the University of NSW.
While looking for a job he worked briefly as a draftsman for Kermac Engineering in Goulburn before landing a role with the Civil Aviation Authority where he provided design advice and monitored weight and balance data for NSW light aircraft.
He progressed to Hawker de Havilland, a precursor to Boeing Aerostructures Australia at Bankstown, designing aircraft parts. This was a stepping stone to Boeing’s Seattle operations for two years where he designed the floor structure for the wide-bodied 777 airliner.
In the early 1990s he had met his future wife Pamela through their mutual interest in their faith and as musicians. They married in January 1993 at the Randwick Uniting Church. Their daughter Helen was born while the family was in Seattle.
A team member with airline specialists around the world, Norman’s projects included the NOTAR (no tail rotor) helicopter, a new creation for emergency work.
In the volatile aviation industry his skills were snapped up in aero defence and aerostructure organisations in Sydney, Richmond, Melbourne and Edinburgh, often as a stress analyst.
Norman Frazer belonged to a small group of former Goulburn High School students living in Melbourne. His former classmate Peter Weaver says he was affable and respectful. “A wonderful friend, he was someone we looked up to academically and as a person as well,” he said. Photo: Philip Wetton.
Ian said his younger brother was attending a medical examination ahead of a new job five years ago when he was alerted to a sinister-looking mole on his back.
He lived with stage three progressing to stage four melanoma for almost five years, drawing on his unshakable faith in God during surgery, immunotherapy and chemotherapy.
“All through this he was buoyed by his belief God was not ready for him and had lots of people praying for his recovery, for a miracle I guess,” Ian said.
