Feature Profiles
13 December, 2025
Local champion mourned
COMMUNITY stalwart and former Loddon citizen of the year Howard Rochester has passed away.
Mr Rochester, who died in hospital Sunday morning, has been remembered as a passionate support of all things Inglewood and respected for his knowledge and commitment to local history.
A fifth generation Inglewood resident he had been part of the town’s football club since junior days in the late 1950s and as reserve member of the fire brigade in the 1960s, in the same crew fighting the disastrous and tragic fire in January 1965 as Alan Mc-Kean who perished in the inferno.
On the 50th anniversary of the fire, Mr Rochester called for the erection of a memorial plaque at the fire scene near Arnold.
Howard had followed his father into the brigade, continuing a family tradition.
He played a helping hand to establish the town’s ambulance auxiliary op-shop and holding a bus licence, volunteered countless hours driving residents around town and also for BUPA in Bendigo.
When demolition crews arrived at the former ambulance station in September 2023, Howard led protesters and staged a sit-in as they battled unsuccessfully to prevent the empty building constructed by the community 40 years earlier from being reduced to rubble.
He was equally passionate about the fortunes of Inglewood Football Club where the family’s long association is recognised with the Rochester Wing.
Mr Rochester was a proud supporter of the Western Bulldogs in the AFL and had his Brooke Street home decorated in the club’s red, white and blue when they made grand finals in the past decade.
His 2024 Citizen of the Year award also recognised a love of history that had extended to giving talks at local schools and compiling history books.
Howard’s love of Inglewood is effusive when talking about the district’s future.
“I see Inglewood having a population more like St Arnaud (2000-plus) in a few years and probably one day around 12,000 like it did at some stages of the gold rush,” he said when receiving the award. Mr Rochester had been unwell in recent times.
The funeral service for Mr Rochester will be held on Monday.
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