BARBARO, Dominic

BARBARO, Dominic

Dom, The Barb

Born in 1935, then raised, lived and died in Adelaide, fanatical supporter of Westies and the Crows. Father of Michelle, Geoff and Paul, grandfather to Anastasia, Dominic and Emilia, and father to Andy.

Dominic lived a full life, with long involvements in footy as player, coach and administrator, in the trots as owner and on committees, and with his beloved golf, accumulating an enormous number of friends along the way. King of the Charcoal BBQ and, in his own opinion, a renowned karaoke singer.

Nearly 60 years of involvement as a Salisbury entrepreneur and businessman - his business made front-end loaders for tractors, including attachments like grape buckets and round hay balers. His other business, in which he worked until he was 82, printed race books, invitations, invoices, business cards and more for the people and companies of SA.

Dominic was 86, so while his passing was very sudden and unexpected, that was more about his personality and his approach to life: think Shane Warne without the smoking, sporting talent or the millions! He started an amateur league footy team, was a board member for SA harness racing for a couple of decades, became President of West Adelaide, a SANFL club, and was one of the Directors who made the decision to start the Adelaide Crows. He even started the craze of getting sports stars to do match races at the trots, and got people like Kevin Sheedy, Ian Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Ian Botham to participate.

He was also the BBQ King of South Australia – and yes, that's an official title! He always cooked a barbie at footy park before the footy, but he also did group trips to events, like country cups. It wasn't unusual for him to cook for 50+ people on a small weber, about 50cm by 30cm, and always just for donations, sometimes to cover his costs but more often for a cause. He won the SA BBQ King competition at Footy Park … winning a brand new BBQ.

Until a certain police intervention, he also had one of the best collections of gaming tables you've seen, from Roulette to Crown & Anchor and Esmerelda (hands up anyone who knows what those last couple are!), which he used for fundraisers for schools and sports clubs for a couple of decades without ever taking a cent for costs.

Dominic was larger-than-life and influenced everyone that he came into contact with. He valued honesty, courage and decency and was a generous man to the end.

He did plenty of living during his 86 years, and his generosity was a defining trait.

His smile, his laugh, his love, and his ‘Dom eyebrow’, all deeply missed.