Tributes for ex-mayor and eco-visionary Leon Trembath

Former City of Springvale mayor Leon Trembath has been remembered as a passionate force of the environment.
Trembath, 83, a father of three, grandfather and retired professional firefighter, died after a long illness on 31 July.
He served as a Springvale councillor from 1975-’87, including as mayor in 1979-’80.
A recently published obituary described his “lifelong passion for the environment and conservation” as a “guiding force in his life”.
“His strength, thoughtful presence, and care for the natural world will be sadly missed.”
According to a story on Gippslandia website, Trembath penned a column on native plants for Dandenong Journal in the 1960s “well before the topic was popular”.
He also led the creation of a bed of native trees in Roth Hetherington Reserve. The trees were from each state in Australia
Aptly, the Leon Trembath Reserve at Corrigan Road, Noble Park bears his name.
Roz Blades OAM, a long-time Springvale and Greater Dandenong mayor, was first elected onto council in 1987 -the year that Trembath’s tenure ended.
“Environmentally, he was very ahead of his time,” Blades says.
At council, he was a “wry debater” interested in holding council officers to account, as well as social justice and the environment.
“He was very interested in the environment, and made a very positive contribution.”
Blades had long been friends with Trembath’s first wife Noelle, who also served as a Springvale councillor.
Their son Mark Trembath continued the Springvale councillor dynasty.
A former Springvale councillor-colleague Jan Tresize OAM recalls being an ally to Trembath’s conservationist causes.
“I agree that he was ahead of his time. When I started on Springvale Council, (ex-councillor) Bob Luxford said to me that (Trembath) got more brains than the rest of them together.”
As a councillor, he had been a key in the fight to preserve remnant bushland at Alex Wilkie Reserve in Springvale South, Tresize said.
“The council was under pressure from various organisations to let it go and not protect it.
“Now it’s a key education centre for school classes and groups to visit. It’s something that City of Greater Dandenong is quite proud of.”
Trembath was also strong on social justice, supporting the Springvale Neighbourhood House and a cafe to employ young people when the youth unemployment rate was a staggering 25 per cent.
“He did a lot of things with schools and involving young people.
“He believed if kids were involved in the planting of trees, they would care for them.”
Trembath also combined with former Springvale mayor, the late Eric Mitchell, to form the Friends of Braeside Park group that still tends to the sanctuary’s orchid-rich bush, wetlands and education centre.
With some irony, he planted River Red Gums in a ‘peace sign’ configuration in a reserve next to a Noble Park shooting range.
“He really picked his mark there,” Tresize said.
Another of his initiatives was convincing Victoria’s road authority to select indigenous species for roadside plantings.
In 1976, Trembath was quoted in the media when a scrub fire burnt out The Grange bushland reserve in Clayton South.
It consisted of the State’s last-known example of Cheltenham heath, and “there’s nothing left — not even a leaf,” Trembath said at the time.
Almost 100 native flower species grew in the reserve, he said.
Up until recent years, he had become a garlic grower, nestled in a bushland paradise in Madalya in the Strzelecki Ranges.
There, he and second wife Cathy lived in his self-built “off grid” home ‘Churinga’ made of reused materials. It was powered by his own hydro-electric turbine at a Jack River waterfall as well as solar panels.
A decade ago, the self-sufficient hydro scheme as well as his harvesting of native mountain pepper were featured on the ABC.
His funeral will be held at Yarram Cemetery on Monday 11 August.