The family of a man killed in a car crash at Nyngan can finally bury him two weeks after his death.
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Frederick Charles Walsh, 64, was found dead in his vehicle that police said had rolled on September 27.
Daughter Noelene Walsh said that authorities had kept pushing back the release of her father’s body until she was “getting to the point of despair”.
A full post-mortem had been conducted and the NSW Coroner was typing up a burial order that day, a NSW Attorney-General spokesman said yesterday.
Ms Walsh was critical of authorities for the lack of information they provided the family in the past fortnight but felt relief yesterday as she was finally able to arrange the funeral for Monday at Nyngan.
It would have been better if they had been told from the start it would take two weeks, not repeatedly told it would be just 24 hours more, she said.
“Obviously the day we were told (of his death) we shed a lot of tears, but we’ve had a lot of people supporting us,” she said.
“Our emotions have been built up, they’ve been all over the place because we have no closure, it’s been a rocky road.”
Mr Walsh raised his three daughters with the help of his parents when wife Dianne was killed in a car crash at Molong in 1981.
Ms Walsh and sisters Annette and Debbie were aged 11, 8 and 6 respectively.
“In the 29 years we’ve been without a mum he’s been there to nurture and support us,” Ms Walsh said.
“It’s unbelievable when you look at what he did by himself.
“All week we’d be at Nan and Pop’s and he’d work and then we’d see him on the weekend and he’d take us to race meetings or the football.”
Mr Walsh’s funeral will involve both family and friends and Ms Walsh expected people to attend from the central coast, Queensland, Molong, Orange, Bourke and all places in between.
Many of these he met during his five decades as a shearer.
A family friend will deliver the eulogy written by Ms Walsh at the funeral to be held at St Mark’s Anglican Church, Nyngan at 2pm.
Grandson Stuart Miles, 22, will read the letters the three younger grandsons wrote to their pop as they were growing up.
The congregation will move to the graveside for the final farewell, with “Click Go The Shears” playing.
The family has compiled a slideshow of photos of Mr Walsh, known as ‘Froggy’ showing his “big beaming smile”.