Firstly let me say it is both an honour and a privilege to be asked to say a few words about our brother, our mate Troy Gordon.
I mean … who wouldn’t want to have a mate or a brother like this bloke.!!
I see this as a huge responsibility… I’ve been thinking about the Funeral Celebrant … and I was thinking what a contradiction in terms, nobody wants to celebrate a funeral…. But then I thought, of course, that’s EXACTLY what we are doing, we are here to celebrate the life of Troy Gordon, a life taken too early ….but he certainly packed a lot in. He loved life!
Troy was an enigma, loveable, kind-hearted, eccentric, loyal, stubborn, sometimes crusty, a real larrikin, a loveable larrikin ….. a simple fella too!
I heard him say it many times but over the course of the last few months…
But it wasn’t till I was writing this out… Troy Robert Gordon Born 8th of June 1968…
8/6/68 ….8/6/68… pretty simple, at least one hurdle for him taken care of.
Troy was born in Bundaberg, to two beautiful loving parents… Ivan and Annette. He loved his parents more than life itself! As a baby and toddler, he was chubby, cheeky, and Trouble …. with a Capital T-Roy! He played football and other sports but he loved cars and boats from a very young age. A precocious 8-year-old, once couldn’t reach the pedals of Dad’s car, so released the handbrake and let the car sail down the hill by itself.
As a teenager, he was accident prone forever pushing the limits, and was many a time taken to hospital on Family Holidays to Currimundi. Only days before he passed he gave Ivan and Annette a beautiful print to hang above the telly…a photo he took a couple of weeks before of Currimundi Lake, so they could remember the good times they all had up there together. He continued his mischievous ways in his teens and lived life to the full. He once flipped the family Catamaran at Cotton Tree…He once crashed his car on Fig Tree Pocked Road, wrote it off, and hid from the cops…he later sold the wreck off for parts.
Troy has two Sisters, Tammy and Angela.. a beautiful big brother who looked out for them. ..He could also be a Ratbag… Tammy tells me once when they were very young Troy took Tammy up the Driveway… to the top.. and let her go. Thankfully no traffic was coming past that day….. He once held his sister Angela over the Balcony by her Feet on the 5th Floor, a ratbag but big brothers do these sorts of things? However, he was once in the Park with Tammy, when she was struck in the face with a Baseball bat, blood everywhere, and Troy Carried her over a kilometer to home to get her taken care of.
A loving and responsible Big Brother too! Troy has 3 awesome nephews Jack, Sam, and Patrick, and niece Amelia and nephew Fergus who both live overseas.
Two Brother in Laws Paul and Andrew… and can I say, in these last couple of months both Tammy and Paul have done so much to make Troy’s remaining time as good as it could possibly be.
Tammy and Troy had a truly beautiful bond their whole lives. They spent many an evening together with a bev or two and loved each other dearly. Even only a week before Troy passed away he had an idea in his head, and when he gets them in there it’s hard not to comply….
He wanted to take some photos of his nephews, Sam and Patrick, with his surfboard down at the beach.
Tammy organised, with the help of an ambulance, all his oxygen and medicines, a lifeguard brought one of those pump-up wheelchairs, and down we went.
Barking orders and demanding this and that from his extremely patient nephews, you truly did your Uncle proud lads!…and we got it done, the weather was beautiful and it was one of his last times he went outside. He even had a good crack at a couple of G string wearing babes on his way out to the waiting ambulance…
His first job was as a Petrol Pump Jockey, and he thought he might be a mechanic? However, he landed an interview, then a job with Channel 9, and started splicing film together for ads. He pulled a few cables on a couple of State of Origin matches and even snuck his sister Tammy in as his assistant.
He moved over to Channel 9 News and started as a Camera Assistant like a few of us, and launched his career in the world of the Media.
Troy worked at Channel 9 News in Brisbane tackling all those hard-hitting local stories, … I do remember as young blokes being up against him (as Assistants, in the media scrum elbows up), when Joe Bjelke Peterson was being tried at the Fitzgerald inquiry….
He worked his way up to being a very well respected Cameraman shooting both here and around the world…. War Zones and places of unimaginable hardships and things some people just shouldn’t see….. I never heard him ever talk about them too much .. he was always a proud and stoic fella …he covered many Sports, actually Troy covered pretty much anything you can think of!!.. he even wore a bow tie to the Academy awards.! He met many a famous face and still has a signed copy of him and Elle McPherson on his wall, both in their glory days!! He just loved the job and the experiences that came with it! He even bought a pub!.. with a bunch of mates Oleary’s in Caxton Street. An absolute highlight for a young bloke who loved hanging out in them. But burning the candle at both ends, ended that for him and his mates……
Of course, he was a bit of a ladies man, always had one or two hanging off him, ….but he was a hard man to tie down and always remained footloose and fancy-free! … and rather allusive.
He was promoted to Channel 9’s A Current Affair where again he shone as a young Cameraman and again traveled the world,.. on one of his many trips to Bali he took it upon himself to go and visit good old Schapelle Corby, I think trying to do the right thing for A Current Affair but also just to go and sit with her and listen.
He told me the story of one day Interviewing Snoop Dog… As they began… Snoop lights up a massive spliff… now personally I thought the smell might give it away,..but… however Troy says to Snoop.. “that’s not real?… Snoop leans over to Troy and goes “ here ya go brother “ and offers him the lit object..… In front of many,Troy takes a drag on the quite strong spliff and says to everybody …that’s real alright…
He says later that the office was screaming for him to get the tapes back to the mountain… but he was sitting in the car park for an hour trying to compose himself to drive.
He was a proud fella though and always did his job with extreme professionalism, he was a fantastic Cameraman.
He won some awards including the ACS National Gold Tripod awarded for the most outstanding Current Affairs coverage. He also won 2 Baftas for his contribution to the I’m a Celeb UK Series a couple of AACTA Awards for Survivor and even a Logie!
Troy eventually decided to turn Freelance, and in 2005 formed TRG Vision, found his way to the reality world and of course countless other productions and shows. I’m a Celebrity Get Me Outa Here UK was one of the first and instantly made a hit with his skills and dexterity. He also landed at Australian Survivor, which he loved probably most of all. And his own Survivor Tribe loved him right back. I know for a fact that he was always the Producers favourite to spend a day with. His pictures were excellent and it did not take long for him to become one of our most valuable team members.
I know when covering something on the beach it was always reassuring to hear Troy over the radio say “I’ve got your back Gav”…. and I always knew I was covered. We know he loved a party, loved life, lived hard, loved his friends .. first to arrive, last to leave!… and he loved the Job. He loved it when it was long hours or teaming with rain, he just loved it. He loved a punt and decided to buy an interest in many a racehorse which most have turned out to be a donkey. He even threatened to leave us a stake in one of them and I said” PLEASE DON’T!”
He had his many quirks and we had a little thing called the book of Troy…one of the many instances was when he fell asleep in the bathtub in Fiji and there was so much water it flooded out the door and out onto the balcony. he was up the poor old security guard who broke down the door for waking him up!
His last months he fought very bravely, … he was a private bloke and thus a few of us were sworn to secrecy…He didn’t want to burden anyone he’d say. I’m glad personally that the secret got out before we lost him because he really did know how much you all love and cared for him. It’s ironic to think for a bloke who hated Social Media so much, that he was plastered all over the place … all the way to the Liverpool Tribune in the UK. Ivan said that he couldn’t believe it… it’s just my son Troy.. and I’d say Ivan that is exactly who your son was …adored by all..!!
Stu Wilson and I went up for one last visit and in true Troy style… he was asleep, his parents had just left…we were just sitting there quietly keeping him company… Stu accidentally made a loudish noise … he popped awake, looked at both of us ..and said …” f#$$ C&*&” and that was the last thing he said to us. I’ll let you substitute the words you think he might have said?
Taken far too soon, but he sure packed a lot in there…
Now id like to ask one last favor… I’d like you all to stand…. Take an imaginary Schooner Glass, in your hand, put whatever beer you like in it, except VB, and hold it like this .. and on the count of 3 I’d like you all to say … TO Troy…However firstly I don’t think it would be him if we said it like,”to troy”… he’d rather it “TO TROY”!! and secondly, and this is very important… you must find someone to look into their eyes, because that’s one of his rules, must look in the eyes!!!…so on the Count of 3; 1..2..3… TO TROY!!!
We’ll miss ya incredibly mate…and more important, is who he was…the kindest, most generous, trustworthy, most loyal bloke one could ever meet.
I am truly humbled to know and truly blessed to call Troy my dearest mate…
by Gav Davidson
January 2021
