Geelong Lawyers' Collection :
William Brian Treyvaud
Eulogy by Richard Annois, 1995
Brian Treyvaud and I first met in 1947 when we both started our law courses at Melbourne University and from then on our lives became inextricably woven together by friendship and family, by common interests and common ideals.
As a young man you first noted that Brian had two outstanding physical characteristics. First was that deep measured resonant voice which never left him. It attracted immediate attention and made him easy to listen to. It made the most simple statements sound profound. Second was that he was built in the mould of those few chosen footballers like Bob Davis, Leigh Mathews, Daryl Baldock whose center of balance is closer to the ground than most.
In our second or third years we discovered another bond. We were each courting girls who had been at school together. We ended up marrying them. From then on the four of us, Brian and Joy and Heather and I became more closely associated and continued that association no matter what changes occurred in our circumstances or our lives.
Brian came to practise law in Geelong in 1954. After a short stint with an old established legal firm Brian realized that the confines and restrictions that employment by a conservative firm imposes was not for him. His drive, his ambition and his courage in accepting causes that others had rejected did not fit well with the rigors of compliance with what was then the norm in a provincial city. He was fortunate however that the standard of advocacy in the Geelong Police Court at that time was high and could boast of some old warriors from whom he could learn his craft.
He entered into partnership with one Jim Coulter and the firm of Coulter & Treyvaud was born. Brian flourished and Mr Coulter got on with his land development proposals. He was later joined by Bob Fazio in partnership. Sadly only the name Coulter remains to identify this firm.
Brian regularly appeared in the Magistrates’ Court and we were often opposed as he acted for a large number of Serbians and I acted for an equal number of Croations. Both groups had been released from the unifying and pacifying influence of Tito and renewed their passions and their prejudices in the new found home. These were the early days of migration in the 1950’s and Geelong was the resting place for those migrants who had no experience of law and order and even less faith in the ability of our legal system to provide justice.
In this hot house atmosphere Brian thrived and attracted a clientele who demanded redress for wrongs, some real, some imagined.
You could almost smell the litigation in the air. It was not long before Brian threw off the restraints that our profession has traditionally placed upon solicitors appearing as advocates in the superior Courts and he put his toe in the waters of the County and Supreme Courts both in criminal and in civil jurisdictions.
I recall our families holidaying together at Lorne one year when Brian received a phone call from a client annoyed by a nearby quarry which had blasted rocks into his garden and onto his roof. Brian dropped everything, immediately sought an interim injunction, and appeared as Counsel in the Supreme Court to obtain the final injunction which effectively stopped quarrying in Newtown, a suburb of Geelong, an activity which had been carried on for years. These quarries are now landscaped gardens and whilst they bear the name of two honoured municipal councillors, will always be remembered by those who know the story as the Brian Treyvaud gardens for without him they would have been much deeper holes in the ground and beyond landscaping.
In 1961 new divorce laws were introduced. Mr Justice Barry of the Victorian Supreme Court gave a series of lectures at night at Melbourne University on the new laws. Brian and I saw the opportunity that this presented as a new and lucrative area of practice and we enrolled. We would have dinner together at the Geelong Club first and take it in turns to drive to Melbourne. After three of these trips we succumbed to the temptation of dining longer, playing billiards and returning to our wives and then very young children at the hour one would normally expect to return from a Melbourne lecture.
This act of marital deception did not last long but his absence from the lectures did not inhibit Brian in developing a large matrimonial practice and he became a Family Court Judge without having completed the lectures.
I suspect that there comes a time in the life of most country lawyers when they realize that a decision has to be made in choosing between the beguiling lifestyle of the country town arising from the smaller population and intimacy with its affairs and the challenge presented by the opportunities of the capital city with its larger population, institutions and wealth.
Brian accepted the challenge, resigned his partnership and joined the bar. To do this he made many sacrifices – but to him his life and his love was the law and they probably did not seem like sacrifices to him. This must have made his choice easier.
In so doing he gave up many of the things that he had commenced to enjoy as part of his Geelong life. He had political ambitions and had stood for pre-selection of his beloved Liberal Party for the seat of Geelong in the Victorian Parliament. That was a party that he associated with Arthur Rylah, Henry Bolte and Sir Robert Menzies. The later change in direction of that party was to cause him considerable anguish, and in this he was not alone.
He was a keen and good golfer and Barwon Heads Golf Club had been on his doorstep. Annual pilgrimages to Victoria Golf Club for a week’s residence with a group of seven fellow Geelong solicitors represented the very best in professional comradeship that then existed, notwithstanding their commercial rivalry. It is sadly lost today.
The beginning of television in Victoria in 1956 is commonly thought to coincide with the Melbourne Olympic Games. So it did, but there was also introduced to television at that time a television show of charades sponsored by Floor Coverings, compered by Danny Webb and starring a a team of four young lawyers from Geelong under the non de charade of the “Moorabool Mimers”. Brian was his inventive best in miming the words “Pantechnicon” and “Balliol College”.
As if arguing for money was not enough, we also enjoyed many happy times as members of a debating team with considerable success. I was number two speaker and Brian was always number three to sum up and deliver the final blow to our opponents. Such was the simplicity of life in the country town, one debate once attracted an audience of some 200 young men to listen to the debate on the subject that women should be placed on a pedestal. Brian had a client who was a plumber from whom he obtained a fine pedestal. I obtained a window dummy from Myers. Our arguments were accompanied by physical demonstrations as we assembled our woman on the pedestal piece by piece with every point in our argument..
Lest I should be taken as painting a picture of the complete man, I should mention some of his few blemishes. He was an appalling photographer, could not sing for nuts and had little or no manual dexterity.
As a family man, Brian was never happier than when being with his children and loved grandchildren or recounting their achievements. Penny’s legal career culminating in her going to the bar was a source of great pride. Robyn’s successful handling of the vicissitudes of life accompanied by her skills was respected and Phillip was always the pride and joy of his father’s life, particularly during his football playing days.
But we all know, and it does not need saying but say it I must, behind Brian and sometimes in front of him leading, was Joy. They shared and participated in all of Brian’s achievement. Jointly they set the goals, and Brian went about achieving them with the 100%, full time, non-stop support of his beloved Joy.
We all grieve for a man we admired and we give our love and support to Joy, Robyn, Penny, Phillip, Vicki, Thomas, Amy and Ben and Samantha in the loss that we share with them of a man who lived his life and his profession to its fullest extent.
He was a faithful friend and we will all miss him.
Richard Annois
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