Community
13 March, 2026
Kent legacy remembered
A SURVIVING member of the Kent family has returned to the area his family loved, 50 years after his father and sister were killed in a car accident.
John Kent has never forgotten his father Ronald and his sister Jennifer, who, alongside the rest of the family, were involved in a number of community organisations and clubs.
Mr Kent said his family was born in Colac, moving to Camperdown in 1969.
“Dad was an apprentice mechanic with my grandfather (mum’s father) in Colac, and then he and mum (Heather) married and my grandfather bought the BP next to the Masonic Hall in Camperdown, which is now the Element Bazaar,” he said.
“My first school was in Elliminyt in Colac, then in Tesbury, Bostocks Creek and Chocolyn.
“My parents kept renting, so in Grade Four we rented a house in Camperdown – this was in 1969.
“I remember that because we went to the library to watch man land on the moon.
“From there, we ended up buying a house on the corner of Park Lane and Fenton Street – just across from the high school.”
It was during this time the Kent family became heavily involved in the community.
“My sister was in Girl Guides and I was in scouts,” John said.
“We couldn’t swim until we moved to Camperdown, where we learned to swim at the pool.
“We joined the swimming club – my sister was a really good swimmer and diver.
“My mum and dad were in the Camperdown Repertory – they did a lot of acting over the years.
“All of us kids were involved somehow – whether we were on stage for certain plays or helping with setting up.”
Mr Kent often finds himself unable to believe how much his family was involved in the Camperdown district, considering the short space of time between the family moving to the area and the accident on March 7, 1976.
He said he is still finding photos from the time, including photos of his father alongside Ian Judd with the Camperdown Racing Club.
“They did the Leura Hill Climb, what was called the Quarter Mile just outside of Camperdown and they used to do a Jim Carner out in Leslie Manor where they had hay bales out and raced,” Mr Kent said.
“Dad raced in the stock cars in Allansford when that started.
“Dad also played tennis, badminton, basketball and has won flags – he did a lot.
“I started out playing football in under 16s when I was 13 because there was no younger category back then.”
Last week Mr Kent put a notice in the Camperdown Chronicle to mark 50 years since the accident, with him receiving a number of responses from residents who still remembered the day.
“Ian Judd’s family and ours were very close, so when I put the notice in the paper he was one of the first to respond,” he said.
“He read it and couldn’t believe it had been 50 years.
“That’s part of why I did it.”
Mr Kent said he could still remember the day of the accident, with him having dodged being in the car as he was competing in the Victorian championships for pistol shooting as the youngest shooter in Australia.
“A family friend and I went up and we were staying at a campground and went shooting each day,” he said.
“I didn’t know they were going, but they were headed to Lake Learmonth for the big speedboat races.
“On the Sunday at about 6pm, a family friend found me and told me what had happened.
“As a 16-year-old, my reaction was to run – the campground was at a lake, and I ran partway around it.
“I couldn’t get my head right.”
Mr Kent’s brother Alan and other sister Brenda were also in the car at the time, being injured alongside his mother.
He said the aftermath of the crash hit hard for his family, with his mother spending a significant amount of time in hospital before returning to Camperdown.
“Mum couldn’t stay in the house of their dreams – it was too hard,” Mr Kent said.
“In the end, she had to pack up and go.
“I was only a month off being 17 and finishing school, and I was put into a situation where one of dad’s bosses, who was quite high up in business in Geelong, came to see mum and asked about me and what I wanted to do once I left school.
“At high school either that year or the year before, boys were allowed to do home economics for the first time, so mum told him I’d started cooking.
“There was an apprenticeship offered to me for the end of that year in Geelong at Fisherman’s Pier Restaurant.”
Mr Kent kept his connection to the area, returning at age 19 to complete his HSC (Higher School Certificate) – which is now the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) – and staying with friends from Camperdown during his Geelong apprenticeship before his recent return.
The return to the area has brought back a number of fond memories for Mr Kent about his late father and sister.
“One of the stories about Jennifer is quite unique – not a lot of people would know about it,” he said.
“A family friend at the time – who was also a scout leader alongside my father – and our family used to go up regularly to the north beach of Lake Bullen Merri in the summer to have a swim and a barbecue.
“One night, Jennifer and the friend decided to have a swim to the other side of the lake. In those days, you just did this stuff – there was no boat and no support.
“Jennifer was 15 and it was the summer a couple of months before she died.
“That was one of her feats.”
Mr Kent said he also had a dear memory with his father, who taught him the value of money by encouraging him to work to buy the jeans brand he wanted.
He ended up working for the local butcher and at a fish and chip shop next door, as well as hay carting during summer.
“When I had my 15th birthday, I had a couple of friends over for tea and mum and dad gave me a present,” Mr Kent said.
“When I opened it, it was a pair of jeans and my friends started giggling – they were Trimline jeans, and I wanted Levi’s like everyone else had.
“One of my dearest memories with him was coming home from hay carting one stinking hot evening, and dad coming out the house with a long neck and two glasses.
“He told me to sit down, and we had a beer together.”
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