He pioneered learner logbooks, taught road safety to state bigwigs, and helped hand out 200,000 life-saving coffees in Colac.
“He got things done.”
Roadsafe Otway’s Matt Daniels has paid tribute to his long-time mate Cliff McAliece, who died this month.
Matt and Cliff worked together since the early 1990s promoting road safety in the region. Both were teachers, and both had seen far too many young people involved in road trauma.
They clicked instantly and spent the next decades developing programs to educate kids, boost L-plater skills, combat drink driving and fight fatigue.
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Where To Buy“He was a man who was full of ideas,” Matt said.
ThingleToodle, Looking After Our Mates and BikeEd are just some of the programs people might remember — as well as an early form of the learner logbook, which was later picked up and expanded by VicRoads.
Cliff served as chair of Roadsafe Otway, and Roadsafe Victoria at one point, and presented at state road safety conferences.
Matt said Cliff’s driving passion stemmed from his time with Colac’s driver reviver, and he carried on the important work of founder Ian “Titch” Burnett after he died.
Cliff helped garner a huge number of donations for Colac’s current Driver Reviver site, which Matt said had probably served up 200,000 coffees over 30 years.
Matt said there were many sides to Cliff.
“He was very my-way-or-the-highway type person, but he was also very, very kind-hearted and generous,” Matt said.
“He had a knack of talking to people that I really envied. No matter who it was he could speak to their level and that’s how he got so many volunteers.”
Matt said Cliff had helped steer people from corrections orders into long-term volunteering and was also a witness for police interviews, heading out to far-flung stations at all times of the night.
“He knew so many people and the relationship we have with police is brilliant, that’s thanks to Cliff.”
Matt said the machine shop teacher also had “an incredible sense of humour. He was a person who didn’t stand bureaucratic bulls*#t, and it used to run him in a bit of trouble”.
“The school had a problem with kids smoking for a while there, and one day he and another teacher spotted smoke wisping out of the toilet window; so they grabbed the fire hose and ‘put out the fire’ — well, there wasn’t much of a problem after that.
“He got in a bit of trouble with administrators, but the rest of the school gave him a pat on the back.”
Matt said he would miss his close mate, and their good team.
“We worked well together — he was so passionate and he got things done. I was just there to sometimes say: We don’t need a bulldozer here, Cliff; we might try a rake.”
Family and friends will celebrate Cliff’s life with a service tomorrow.