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The Great White Mouse Hunter.

John Lynch was a hermit who lived on the north side of Tocumwal. He owned 2 gliders and an aeroplane and had an airstrip close to his hanger-house. A very talented fellow whose background is a little grey because he was a private fellow and didn’t mix with many people. His entrance gate was always padlocked; he didn’t welcome visitors. I got along well with John and would visit him by landing on his airstrip.
When John first came to Tocumwal he lived in one of the war-time hangers. During a mice plague he would shoot the little creatures and once bragged he could get them from the hip, even at 20 paces. He was probably using rat/bird shot. Christine Riley named him the ‘great white mouse hunter’ which I shortened to ‘mouse hunter and eventually to mouse’. He was a brilliant engineer and made aeroplane and glider canopies, he built a tail-less glider, put a tightly cowled engine on another. He once won the bird-man contest with a glider he made from polystyrene and plastic food covering. He did well by buying and or swapping aeroplanes and ended up with an RV4; a tandem 2-seater that was both fast and aerobatic. He flew well.
John’s health deteriorated. Towards the end of his life he sold his aeroplane and his MG motorcar which he restored from what would almost be called scrap metal. He hung out for the last dollar he could squeeze from the buyers. These toys bought $110k and it was in cash. His wealth was considerable and was inherited by his brother along with his now featherless galah which John had saved (with feathers) from the roadside with a broken wing. This galah would get quite jealous if John chatted too long with me or other visitors.
Eventually John succumbed to cancer. He had a small, public invited funeral service at his hanger. Small because not many knew him. His body ashes were dropped from an aeroplane but unfortunately most ended up on his shed roof. Now John spends his RIP time in the rain-water tank which holds the water that runs off the shed roof.
A private person, very mechanically talented and I did not know it at the time, but a banjo playing muso.
There was one thing that had us all confused, amused and thinking. Financially all seemed in order except for the $110k cash he received for this motorcar and aeroplane. It couldn’t be found. It was said many holes were dug around his house and vegie garden in hope. Nil yield.