The manicured vines and tamed landscape of Pokolbin may have been different to the wild places Brian Gilligan usually liked to explore, and to help save, but it was not so much the location but the faces at the memorial service for the environmental leader that said so much about the man.
They were the faces of family and dear friends, senior public servants and environmentalists, teachers and lecturers, gardeners and fellow bushwalkers. The sum of those faces was an expression of how far, and how deeply, the life and work of Brian Gilligan had flowed through other people's lives.
As Kevin Markwell, his friend and former colleague at the renowned wetlands centre at Shortland, told the audience, "Whether you were in research, education or ground staff, a school teacher, a student, a volunteer, a politician or a senior bureaucrat, you could expect Brian to engage with you with respect and a genuine interest in listening to what you had to say."
About 250 had gathered in a pavilion of the Ben Ean winery on Tuesday afternoon to mourn the death, and to celebrate the life, of Brian Gilligan. The environmental educator and protector died on December 11 due to cancer. He was aged 72.
The venue for the memorial service was primarily chosen because of COVID-related restrictions. The Gilligan family needed a venue large enough to accommodate the sheer number of people who wanted to acknowledge him. Not even the Hunter Wetlands Centre that Mr Gilligan had helped found was considered suitable to safely accommodate the audience. .
The latest COVID outbreak in Sydney forced some to send their apologies. Yet they were still included; the service was live streamed. However, the pandemic could not stop others from journeying to the Hunter Valley vineyards to express their love and admiration for Mr Gilligan.
In a way, the choice of venue reflected what Brian Gilligan did throughout his life, leading people to somewhere beautiful and encouraging them to look around and cherish what they saw. To cherish what they had.
Close friend and retired law professor Ray Watterson said his mate possessed a "life-saving" eye. Ray Watterson recounted stories of how Mr Gilligan had spotted and saved all manner of creatures, from a red-bellied black snake and tawny frogmouths in his home community of Seaham to Arctic tern eggs in Iceland.
"He was dedicated to his family, to the environment, to his friends, to learning, and to help others learn," Ray Watterson said. "Brian's precious, Brian's special."
What was most precious to Brian Gilligan was his family. Micheala, his wife of 48 years, read Deep Peace, a Gaelic blessing. Each of their three children - Adam, Kate, and Conor - spoke at the lectern festooned in native flowers, as did eldest grandson, Mac, who had just completed the HSC.
The teenager said his "andad" had a broad and deep knowledge - especially when it came to identifying species of birds (a skill referred to more than once during the service) - yet he "nurtured an appreciation of simplicity, beauty and the little things."
From Brian Gilligan's appreciation of little things bloomed big achievements. Born in the Upper Hunter, the high school science teacher founded the Awabakal Field Study Centre at Dudley, introducing thousands to environmental education. He held senior roles in the NSW Environment Protection Authority and was head of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, as well as working in other land management and conservation agencies both in Australia and abroad.
"His impact was not just in NSW and Australia but overseas as well," said former National Parks colleague Terry Korn.
"To me, Brian is the landscape and all it contains and nourishes. So Brian will always be there, whenever I look at the landscape."
The service was woven with songs that meant a lot to Brian Gilligan. There was The Voyage by Irish singer Christy Moore, and the hauntingly beautiful Wiyathul, by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, a piece Brian would play as a lullaby as he gently rocked his five grandchildren to sleep. And, true to the man who saw the good in people and hope in the future, there was John Lennon's Imagine.
"Probably Dad's favourite song," said daughter Kate Murray before the service.
And there was The Living Years, by Mike and the Mechanics, the song's lyrics laced with regret for what was left unsaid before someone died. Brian Gilligan ensured that did not happen.
A few months ago, Brian Gilligan handed Micheala a note. The words he had penned were reproduced in the service's booklet, with the simple heading, "Thank you". So even though his life had ended, the gratitude and humanity, the education and the wisdom of Mr Gilligan didn't.
For all the words said about him at the service, it was what Brian Gilligan had to say that perhaps resonated the deepest.
In his note, "BG" thanked his "wonderful wife and family" for giving him "more joy than any person has a right to expect from life".
He thanked his friends and colleagues, and all those across the generations with whom he had connected, which had "given me particular happiness, motivation and a positive outlook for the future of humanity".
"Thank you all for contributing to my very fortunate life," Brian Gilligan wrote. "I hope your lives can each be as joyous and satisfying as you have made mine."
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