How we Australians are mourning our favourite larrikin son
Meat pies and memories mark the passing of Shane Warne, says Lucie Morris-Marr in Melbourne
The breaking news alerts, just before 1.30am Saturday morning Melbourne time, were unfathomable – Shane Keith Warne, one of Australia’s most cherished sporting icons and well-known larrikins, had died.
Our Warnie? Surely it couldn’t be true? His loss at just 52 was, is, simply unthinkable.
No wonder that as the country sleepily woke to the shocking announcement, the first reaction of most was tears. And not just at home. Commentators, TV hosts, the Melbourne baristas, socialites on Instagram, neighbours and dogwalkers – everywhere you looked, Aussies were, are, stunned. Cricketer Glenn Maxwell, 33, broke down several times during a radio interview, saying: “You’d be hard pressed to find a more caring, loyal, generous person.”
While deeply felt accolades were expressed en masse all over the world, from India to the UK, here, the first instinct of many was more old-fashioned – a need to get as close to the legend as they could.
Physical tributes quickly began building at his statue outside the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Some fans left flowers, while others marked their respect with other items, including cricket balls and even a meat pie, a bottle of local beer and a packet of cigarettes. No lack of respect here; Warnie was our down-to-earth hero, the people’s sporting prince with the bleached blonde hair. He’d have loved the humorous gestures.
Still, it seemed no one could comprehend how the entertaining sporting legend, with the eternally boyish demeanour and dazzling smile, could have died of a suspected heart attack on holiday in Koh Samui, Thailand. Warne simply radiated life and vigour wherever he was spotted in his home city, including a recent public appearance in January to watch the men’s final of the Australian Open. With his buoyant, busy working, social and family life, he was enjoying his early fifties as if he was still in his thirties – so much so, he’d just started a new fitness regime. He recovered from Covid recently, and latest photographs showed him looking tanned, with good muscle definition.
As yesterday wore on, tributes poured in: Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison said the country had woken in “shock and sadness”. Daniel Andrews, the premier of Victoria, offered the family a state funeral to honour the popular commentator, whose death came on the same day as fellow Australian cricketer Rod Marsh, 74. “Victoria has lost an icon,” the premier said of Warne. “Australia has lost a legend. And the entire cricketing world is mourning the loss of the King.”
The date of the funeral is yet to be confirmed and will be arranged in consultation with the Warne family, Cricket Australia and the Victorian Government to “ensure it honours Shane’s passing and memory”.
Martin Pakula, Victorian sports minister, also announced the Great Southern Stand at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) will be renamed the S.K. Warne stand. It’s unlikely to be the only major landmark to host his name. Meanwhile, the star’s family and friends began to arrive at the Melbourne house of Warne’s former wife, yoga teacher Simone Callahan, where she was believed to be comforting their three children, Brooke, 24, Jackson, 22 and Summer, 20.
His devastated parents Brigette and Keith Warne spent the day processing the news at their home in Black Rock, a seaside suburb. “We’re just in shock … we’re ok,” Brigette was quoted telling a local newspaper, as Shane’s brother Jason was seen visiting them.
Warne had moved to the area with his parents from the forested hills in Upper Fernhill Gully when he was a young boy. He would make many connections and friends in the area, after winning a sporting scholarship to the exclusive nearby private school Mentone Grammar from year nine. The school, where Warne captained its cricket team, said yesterday the entire community was in mourning over “the sudden passing of a beloved Mentonian”.
His loss may be global, but it feels to those of us who live in Victoria poignantly local. Kris Smith, the model and former partner of Dannii Minogue, who lives near Warne’s parents in Black Rock, pointed out, as many have, that his friend enjoyed life to the full. “Some people leave this earth having never really lived, but not you my friend,” he said on Instagram.
Julia Morris, TV presenter and comedian, who also lives near Warne in Melbourne, also paid tribute, saying; “We mention him more than once a day in our home ... with our little joke about helicopters flying over: ‘That’s Warnie going to get milk’.”
Hollywood star and fellow Australian Hugh Jackman said: “I was grateful to have known him.”
When I interviewed Warne a few times at events, including the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival, I was always struck by the startling brightness of his eyes – one blue and one green; all part of the charismatic, alluring package of bachelor Warne that will no doubt prove a loss to the local Tinder dating scene, of which he was happy to admit to be an active member.
And he once poured his heart out to me at an event in Melbourne in 2014 about a break-up with former girlfriend, Emily Scott, a DJ and model. “It might be a grown-up split, but it doesn’t get any easier,” he told me. “We’re at different stages in our lives … I’m in no rush to meet anyone else, it’s about work and my three children for now.”
Hopefully his children will find comfort that although their father’s priority was cricket when they were small, he ensured they became the centre of his world in his retirement. “They inspire me to be the best person I can and motivate me on a daily basis,” he once said. “I love being a father.”
As the state, the nation – and the world – mourns Warnie, it’s his grieving children who are suffering the greatest loss, as they wait for their father’s body to be returned from Thailand.
They were the king of spin’s proudest legacy of all.