A CULCAIRN Show stalwart and National Party supporter are among those who have signed a condolence book for the family of Tim Fischer.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The album has been laid out at member for Farrer Sussan Ley's Albury office to acknowledge her predecessor and former deputy prime minister who died last Wednesday aged 73.
Widow Joan Wood was driven the 50 kilometres from Culcairn by her daughter so she could sign the book on Monday.
"I feel I knew him well because Culcairn Show day he made a special appearance and my husband Noel was a railwayman and he and Mr Fischer got on very well," Mrs Wood said.
She has been involved with the show for 50 years, now filling the position of assistant secretary after having been secretary for 30 years.
"(Mr Fischer) would come and say hello; he was country through and through," Mrs Wood said.
Fellow long-time rural resident Jill Paton, who lives in Albury after having spent decades on a property at Tooma with her late husband Walter, extolled Mr Fischer.
"He was just an amazing Australian citizen that had time for everybody and everything," Mrs Paton said.
"We had been associated with him for such a lot of things and we will never forget him."
The Patons were part of the now defunct Tooma-Khancoban National Party branch and helped Mr Fischer's campaign to switch from NSW to federal politics in 1984.
Mrs Paton said Mr Fischer, who she knew from a young age, had assisted with events she was involved in organising as part of the Walwa-Jingellic branch of the Red Cross.
Other signatories to the condolence book yesterday came from Tangambalanga, Daysdale and Henty as well as Albury-Wodonga.
The volume will remain available for signing at Ms Ley's office until Mr Fischer's funeral on Thursday.
Former Albury deputy mayor Ross Jackson, who works in the rail industry, has organised for three rail motorcars known as Tin Hares to carry Mr Fischer's body from The Rock to Albury on Thursday morning.
Mr Fischer's hometown of Boree Creek was served by the trains with the set on Thursday belonging to the Lachlan Valley Railway Society and stabled at Lithgow.