Mr Norton, who died on April 3 in Mackay in northern Queensland, was involved in numerous community organisations in Port Fairy and Warrnambool, including the Port Fairy Football Netball Club, the Port Fairy RSL sub-branch, the Port Fairy and Koroit bowls clubs and the Port Fairy Show Society.

His wife, Jan, said her husband’s involvement with the Port Fairy area had likely started when he played football as a teenager at Killarney on an oval that was locally called both “the MCG” and Mahoney’s cow paddock.

Mrs Norton said her husband devoted himself wholeheartedly to his community activities whether it was as a shire councillor or in the football club.

She said that even when he was ill in Mackay this year, he still listened to radio broadcasts of Port Fairy football games.

Mr Norton was a captain in the Australian Army Reserves and served in Vietnam.

In his civilian life, Mr Norton was a beef producer and farmed Belgian Blues cattle in the Port Fairy area. He also served as a president of the Belgian Blues Cattle Society Australia.

He was also a partner in the Four Seasons restaurant in Port Fairy’s main street when it was operated by a partnership that included his in-laws.

Mrs Norton said she and her husband had travelled to Mackay last year to escape the Port Fairy winter but Mr Norton became too ill to return and they had stayed with family members.

Mr Norton is survived by Jan, their three children, Matthew, Dale and Susanne, and their families.