SALUTE TO A FALLEN HERO
A Cairns teacher, who helped pull students from the wreckage of a horror bus crash which claimed the lives of eight children, has been farewelled by hundreds.
Brian Stopford, a football “nut” with a lifelong passion for the round ball game, was remembered as a hero by his sister, who took to the podium of the Cairns High gymnasium to say how proud she was of the PE teacher who touched so many lives over 35 years at the school.
“I’ve always been proud of my brother’s achievements, and after today he’s a hero,” she said.
Brian was one of the first at the wreckage of a school bus that rolled off a cliff on the Gillies Highway west of Gordonvale in 1987.
While his own efforts were incredible, he recalled the heroic efforts of students in a “war zone”.
Brian was on another bus behind and remembers students, fraught with emotion, running to help their classmates in one of the most terrifying times of their lives.
As well as the shocking death toll, there were another 32 students injured plus two teachers and the driver.
“I would have used the word ‘heroic’,” he told the Cairns Post back in 2017.
“They are 16 years of age, dealing with their peers, in the shock and horror of a war zone with dead peers, bleeding peers, kids who were trapped and pinned and all that awful stuff.”
Memories of six students grabbing a log to lever the bus off a classmate’s chest, 16how year-old Raymond Driberg weaving in and out of the wreckage and the countless others who kept their injured friends company, stuck with Brian.
“These kids put aside their own emotions and concerns. They worked together to minimise the harm and damage — they were heroes.”
Cairn High executive principal Chris Zilm remembered Brian as a “football nut”.
“We’re all still reeling,” he said of the teacher’s death.
“He loved to see kids playing football. Football was his life, and he made the most of it while he was here.”
Speakers lovingly remembered his eccentricities, such as rock and empty whiskey bottle collecting, but also his dedication to the game, to other people, his sense of fun and the feeling that he grabbed hold of life.
One of his former students, Wren Sewell, attended to pay her respects, and she had nothing but kind words about he welcomed her into the school many years ago.
“He was my Grade 7 teacher, normal phys ed stuff,” she said.
“We did a lot of lacrosse, things like that, and he was always just … he didn’t push you, he included everyone and made you feel like part of the team.
“He was the first teacher that I met from Cairns High and he would always welcome me because Grade 7 was such a big thing.”
Current physical education teacher at Cairns High, Josh Taylor, looked on Brian as a mentor and said he was a great person.
“He knew what he wanted and as you can see what he has built, he got results, he was a great man.”
The tributes flowed from MC Bluey Forsythe, Trevor
Gordon, Cairns High School principal from 1999-2010, Shane Dove from Football Qld, and Mladen Bosnic, a former president of the Stratford Dolphins, who since 1972 was also a friend of Brian’s.
Late in the afternoon Brian’s sister took the podium, and through her sadness she said she was proud.
“If anyone is 60 or older check your heart health, keep an eye on your health in general, this crept up on him.”
Over his 50 years of dedication Brian developed the skills of young players.
Perhaps it was former student Wren Sewell who beautifully summed up Brian Stopford.
“He always remembered me and asked how I was going,” she said.
“He was just so sweet, and always really warm.”
I’ve always been proud of my brother’s achievements, and after today he’s a hero. Brian’s sister