Vale - Timothy Joseph McManus

Tim was born in 1932, and attended St Virgil’s College from Year 4 through to Year 12, matriculating in 1950 as Dux of the College.

He went on to study at the University of Tasmania for two years before moving to New South Wales to pursue Veterinary Science for a further four years - graduating as a Vet and returning to Tasmania to work.

In October 2022, Tim celebrated 60 years of marriage to his wife Eileen (née McMenimam). They have four daughters. 

Tim had practised as a veterinarian for the Agricultural Department in the north of the state since the mid 1950s. Since the 1960s Tim and he had lived and worked in Falmouth, where he ran a surgery, retiring in 1997. For many years he had a segment on the radio in the north, discussing animal health and welfare issues as part of the ABC County Hour.

He was an expert in Ross River virus, presenting a paper on the subject at Oxford when he was overseas. Locally he had acted as a disease consultant, warning locals and unsuspecting visitors to the East Coast about how to protect themselves from contacting the mosquito borne virus.

Tim had been an active member of the Catholic community on the East Coast especially within the St Helens Catholic Parish. Last year he was awarded the Guilford Young Medal by way of acknowledgement of his substantial contribution to the life and mission of the Catholic church in Tasmania.

Tim was instrumental in the establishment and ongoing maintenance of the Winifred Curtis Reserve, a 75-hectare private nature reserve located two kilometres south of Scamander. It is named after Tasmania's most esteemed botanist. The reserve is the last intact remnant of dry sclerophyll bushland, marshland and heathland in the Break O'Day Municipality, unchanged since the time of European settlement in the early 1820's.