In life’s journey you meet a lot of people, most of whom you forget, some become acquaintances and occasionally you make a friend – I lost a friend last Friday.

Julian by his own admission and using his words was ‘not an easy passenger’; indeed he was a complex individual more often than not speaking in riddles; fact is that there were a number of his contemporaries like the late Paul Fayman who used to confide in me that he didn’t actually understand what Julian was saying.

What you have to know about Julian though is that he didn’t have an easy life;

Born in Lodz 15 June 1924 as Avraham Yossef, son of Pincus and Hela and sister Tosha who was six years older, into a family of successful business people and professionals; he acquired early in life an appreciation of the arts.

Only a teenager when the second world war broke out his whole life was turned upside down living in the Lodz ghetto with his maternal grandparents. Julian managed to survive on his ‘street smarts’ becoming very resourceful in the ghetto. He told me that his red hair and excellent German got him through a number of tight situations.

Unfortunately his father took a very bad beating from the Germans and in Sept 1944 as the last transport out of the Lodz Ghetto, he and family were transported to Auschwitz where he and his father were separated into two different lines never to see each other again.

Julian was liberated at “Friedland” in May 1945 after which he travelled to Prague via Austria and then Germany.

After WW2 he, like many other survivors found himself in Munich Germany – many of the friends that he made during his stay in Germany, who were also polish survivors, came to Australia in the late 40’s to mid 50’s – not Julian.

Julian decided that South America was a far better place to go and between 1951 and 1953 he travelled through Argentina settling in Brazil. He told me that he became a journalist at one point carrying a press pass and a hand gun for self protection 24 hours a day.

Julian was an enterprising businessman in Brazil where he married Rosie and became a father to Helena who was born on 12 Jan 1958.

Life didn’t work out as well as he had hoped in South America and in 1967 he decided to migrate to Australia, soon after, bringing out his then wife Rosie and his daughter Helena. In the early 70’s he and Rosie went their own separate ways.

Julian initially found Australia very challenging predominantly because many of his contemporaries from Poland who came here via Germany were reasonably well established by that time.

Julian was a proud, trustworthy and resourceful man and through the friends that he had established in the past was able to become involved as a partner in Hepburn Springs at a time when people were drinking it from the spring for medicinal reasons whilst gagging on the taste. He had many interesting partners and involvements in this activity and having acquired the entire business over time, applied his vision by ‘filtration’ of the spring waters and introducing ‘flavours’ to the mineral water. The first forerunner of what we are now accustomed to.

The business thrived and he sold this business to Cadbury Schweppes around 1986.

Apart from his pride in his business achievements he was most proud of his daughter Helena and her various academic achievements.

About 1982 he told me that he had become seriously involved with Shirley/Charlotte/Lilly (she goes and is known by many names) and since my wife Fay had known her all her life and I had known her for some 3 years at that time, he asked my opinion of Shirley and whether he should marry her; my response was as obtuse as the conversations that we had enjoyed up to that point; I responded that it would be both “good” and “bad” - good for him and bad for her. He took that as confirmation and in 1983 they married.

Julian, with his eyes wide open created the “blended family” – he took on Shirleys three children Alan, Debbie, and Leah not to mention Shirleys various siblings and their offsprings. His immediate very small family of he and Helena multiplied by about 100; a situation that presented him with many challenges both real and imagined.

Since the late eighties Julian has been working on secretive ‘category killer ventures’ – I have no doubt that some of these were destined for huge financial success; regrettably Julian ran out of time to see them through.

Julian was a complex combination of intellect and ‘street smart’, proud and demanding of himself and those close to him, a loyal friend who was besotted by his grandchildren Caroline, Samantha, Marc, Paul, Carla, Joseph and Tarryn and his great granddaughter Isabella.

On many occasions over the past almost 30 years, Julian shared with me his most intimate feelings about life, family and business.

 We compared notes, we laughed and philosophized. 

There was one consistent focus - his beloved wife of almost 28 years Shirley; he cherished his relationship with her and repeatedly told me that marrying Shirley was the best thing he had ever done in his life.

Some people are easy to forget but Julian will never be forgotten by those that knew him – a unique individual indeed - may his soul rest in peace.