Adventurer and musician Tony Beks dies

Published in the Warrnambool Standard 16th Feb. 2016

TONY Beks was a man of many talents and music and sailing were foremost among them. Mr Beks, of Koroit, sailed around the world over six and a half years, engaging with a wide variety of communities by playing the mandolin and and fiddle. Mr Beks, who died of cancer on February 8 at the age of 63 at his Koroit home, took on many other challenges during his life including designing and inventing. Among his creations were a three-wheeled motorbike, a low energy bluestone house at Koroit and a 12-metre yacht for a Koroit neighbour. He was instrumental in starting up the South West Musos Club and helped organise many musical performances for charity including a 17-band function for the victims of the 1983 Ash Wednesday fires. His uncle, John Beks, said his nephew had packed a lot into his life. Over the years, Tony Beks worked as a welder, fisherman, spray painter, truck driver, teacher and stonemason. In about 2000 he moved to Darwin where he worked as an engineer on prawn trawlers. In Darwin, he was the commodore of the Dimah Beach yacht club for two years and played music in many Darwin venues. He bought and refitted a 14-metre yacht, which he named ‘Ragin Cajun,’ and headed off from Darwin in 2007,   He intended to sail to the Netherlands but after he got there, kept doing “a series of small hops” that took him round the globe. During his voyage around the world, he stopped for long periods in many places such as East Timor and Capetown in South Africa, often working as a volunteer teaching English, welding, computer and other skills. Mr Beks said his passion for performing music had given him a universal bond with people around the world. He was sometimes the only white person in the bands he played with, sometimes the only white person in the vicinity. His wake last week at Mickey Bourke’s hotel in Koroit featured many musical tributes from Mr Beks’s musician friends.