Les SkatePrint Page

The plaque commemorates Len Skate (1928 - 2019), who served the Coldstream community for more than 60 years.  He was awarded the Yarra Ranges Council's Australia Day Mayor's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The plaque is next to a life size concrete Model T Ford car emerging from the ground, which commemorates a true local story of a Model T Ford that ended its life and remains buried somewhere beneath the local football oval.

Les Skate was 14 when his family moved to Coldstream in 1943.  He followed in his father's footsteps as a shearer for 25 years and later, as a self-taught builder, established Skate Constructions which built many of the Yarra Valley's wineries.

He was a member of the Coldstream Cricket Club and a life member of the Coldstream Football Club, the Lilydale Agriculture and Horticulture Society and the Scout and Guide Associations.  He was a founding member of the football club in 1952, and a dedicated worker and office bearer.

On the ground, he played 305 games and coached the Under 16s to the club's maiden premiership in 1963 and the second 18s to a senior flag in 1972.  When his sister, Coldstream historian Val Sheehan, put forward an idea for a memorial to honour the district's servicemen and women, which was unveiled in 1995.

He  assisted in setting up a Men's Shed at the Caladenia (Dementia) Centre in Lilydale and has spent his own time and money creating pathways and landscaping at the centre.

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