Sadly this pastime led to his untimely death in 1964, when the boat he was fishing in near Point Danger capsized, drowning Mr Smith and his friend Walter Knightly from Mount Gambier.

Last weekend, Mr Smith’s family members gathered in Portland on the weekend to remember their late relative as his name was added to Seafarers Wall – a monument erected overlooking Portland Bay to acknowledge those who died at sea.

His daughter Tricia Peters said she was “quite overwhelmed”, not only by the ceremony but by the number of relatives that attended, travelling from as far away as Ballarat and Geelong.

“It was a time-stopping event for me and a lot of people in Merino at the time,” she said of her dad’s death.

“I was 14 years old. He was a young man with a young family. He was a community man, and he ran Merino Motors, so he was the farmer’s friend. He worked long hours and he loved to go fishing. And he went off fishing one day and never returned.”

The bodies of Mr Smith and  Mr Knightly were recovered by divers the following day. Two others, Edwin and Gordon Osborne, survived the incident.

Ms Peters, who has lived in Portland for most of her life, said she watched Seafarers Wall “evolve and wondered why my father’s name couldn’t be up there”.

She approached Glenelg Shire and councillors unanimously agreed to add Mr Smith’s name to the wall, which was erected in 1993.