Despite our protests, Colin Greef refused to stop lugging our Canberra Daily photographer’s equipment case up a steep hill and a flight of stairs – a true gentleman, albeit with some tough-looking tattoos.

Only 72 years young, Colin, a Canberra local, has an uncanny ability to make everyone feel instantly at ease in his presence, and then have them doubled over laughing while sharing one of his many entertaining tales.  

As a veteran, he spent 33 years of his life in the Navy – 11 years in the Royal and 22 in the Australian – serving on frigates, destroyers, and an aircraft carrier.

“I did Cambodia. That was back in ‘92 when a fella called Pol Pot was causing a lot of trouble. I was in Cambodia for five months and that’s where I got the Active Service Medal. It was a good experience, not a lot of nice sights mind you, but it was a good experience,” Colin smiled. 

“I didn’t go to Vietnam. I had just left the Royal Navy and the Falklands started, and I was furious. I got my request form into my boss and said I want a discharge now to go back to the Royal Navy just for the Falklands, and then I’ll come back.

“He said ‘you can’t do that’, and I said, ‘why not?’”

If Colin had been sent to fight the Argentinian troops at the Falkland Islands, he most likely wouldn’t be here to share his infectious generosity across the Canberra community.

“On my last ship, I worked on missile systems for three years, doing first firings and everything. I wanted to go back, and all my mates were still on the ship,” he said.

“By the time I forced my boss to do it, the ship with my mates on it in the Falklands got sunk. It was the first one to be sunk. There were 15 killed, and in the missile system that I worked on with three other blokes, you go down first.

“My two mates were killed because the missile came straight at the side of the ship and down to the missile system. I would have been down there. My wife was happy I didn’t go.”

According to Colin, being in the Navy is the best career you could have. He genuinely loved every single day of it and it’s the reason he discovered his one true passion.  

“A couple of boys at sea played music, they played the guitar, and I thought, ‘I want to learn how to play one of them’,” recalled Colin.  

“They showed me a few chords and when you’re at sea for months on end, it was just something to do … I just fell in love with music and playing all kinds of different genres – bit of country, bit of folk, and a bit of everything else.

“When you’re at sea, you don’t stop singing – it’s every night. A lot of them are sailor songs, obviously … but you just make your own entertainment, and everyone loves it.”

Around six years ago, Colin’s love of playing the guitar and giving back to his own veteran community morphed into a music group with Soldier On, a holistic support service provider for defence personnel, veterans, and their families.

Around 10 veterans gather in a room together every Thursday morning and begin their jam session with a chat about their mental health, as the majority of the men live with some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Colin said everybody talks to each other about their problems, and the men are able to speak about their struggles to fellow veterans, which is a rare occurrence around civilians. “When you get the boys together, they’ll open up,” he said.

After their chat, they grab their instruments and play some songs – their worries melting away with each chord they play together.

“This is the best medicine you could have, talking. Talking to your mates, telling them what your problems are, and they’ll tell you what their problems are. The first half hour we do every Thursday, we’re just talking about what medication we’re on,” Colin smiled.

“We just have a good laugh, when you get to our age, you’ve just got to enjoy yourself. It’s therapy, and playing an instrument is therapy. In the past few years, we’ve lost a couple of our boys through cancer from Agent Orange from when they were in Vietnam. But we’re always there to help them, help his wife out because that’s what we do – we stick together, we really do.”

A member of the group since day one, Colin realised they had some spare guitars lying around and wanted to put them to good use – and the rest is history.

“I thought I’ll give them away, but then I thought I could do more than just that. I’ll go to the public and other veterans and my other volunteer groups and get the world out to see if anybody would like to donate a guitar or ukulele and I’ll find a good owner for them with veterans or disadvantaged children,” he said.

“I was expecting about 10 guitars to come in, but I’ve had over 200 and already given out 150 all over the place. Once I started getting a few guitars in, it was while the fires on the South Coast were on and a lot of people had lost their homes, and kids had lost their guitars.

“So, we organised to go down to give out guitars, and we started in Nowra, and over a few weekends we finished in Eden. We gave out close to 49 guitars to the kids along the coast and to a couple of schools.”

A particularly fond memory dissolves Colin’s stoic ‘veteran’ presence, and he says the essence of the memory is the main reason he keeps the donation program going.

“There were three kids, two brothers and a girl, who didn’t have their own guitars, so I gave them one each. The little girl started crying … I’m getting choked up here myself,” said Colin, clearing his throat.

“I just love it. I just love it. It’s just great fun.”

Colin relayed story after story of children and veterans who had touched his heart when he gifted them brand new guitars, and his affinity for people in need is evident from his long history of charity work.

“I’ve been doing charity work and fundraisers since 1982. I just do it. I did Santa for 40 years, every year. The first year, one of the boys had a farm and he said sit on the bonnet of the car, we’ll honk the horn, and you’ll say ‘ho, ho, ho,’ and all the kids will be there at the barbecue,” Colin said. 

“We’re going down this dirt road, he put the brakes on, I slid straight off the bonnet of the car and I’m rolling in all this dust; my beard is at the back of my head; the kids are cheering like mad – they think it’s brilliant – ‘oh, look at Santa, Santa’s been run over!’ I just stood up and said ‘Merry Christmas, kids’. Everybody loved it except for me – I had gravel rash everywhere.”

Along with Santa, Colin is a master fundraising organiser, helps out at the Early Morning Centre, and even volunteers doing roleplay for detectives in training at a Canberra police station.

“It’s not a chore, it’s not a job. It’s just great to get out there and help the kids and veterans who are doing it tough. For a few of them, as soon as they start thinking about what happened in Vietnam and Iraq and this, that and the other, they pick up a guitar and start plonking away, and the mind goes off it,” Colin said.

For his generous work among the Canberra veteran community, and with vulnerable children across the ACT and NSW, Colin was awarded the LG Local Legend award, which, he said, was the “shock of his life”.

“I’ve never won anything … then I got this phone call and they said you’ve been nominated, and you’ve won the Local Legend of the ACT and I said, ‘what are you talking about?’,” smiled Colin, shaking his head, still in disbelief.

“I couldn’t believe it. The presented me with this 81-inch LG TV that is absolutely magnificent! I can’t wait for Top Gun to come onto the TV – the sound blasting out … imagine.

“It was just a great thrill for someone like me. I like to stay in the background, I really do, so it was a great thrill for LG to give me something like that. I really am proud because it started from nothing and just seeing the pleasure on the veterans and kids’ faces… especially the kids.”

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