Macksville in mourning for Hughes

As it prepares to welcome the world tomorrow, the tropical riverside truck stop of Macksville where Phillip Hughes’s roots, heart and soul remain forever firmly planted, is not only in heavy mourning.

It is also a town in conflict.

For this is rightly supposed to be a time of year when celebration beckons and spirits soar.

When the jacarandas shed their mauve cloaks, the brilliant red of the bottlebrush dominates in their place, and the chirrup of the cicadas in the afternoon sun at the edge of Dawkins Lake creates a deafening chorus outside the front doors of the Shire Council offices.

But for now, along the town’s silently bustling main commercial strip, Christmas decorations play a self-conscious second fiddle to a collection of cricket bats that stand to attention and deliver a potent if unspoken message in every shopfront window.

In one is a directors’ chair, empty save for a vintage willow blade, a couple of signed miniature versions and a polo shirt commemorating the 2005-06 A-grade premiership of the Macksville Ex Services Cricket Club – where Hughes’s junior career began – with a sign saying simply: ‘RIP Phillip – Heartbroken’.

Rather than festooned in tinsel, the sign posts and light poles throughout Macksville have been adorned with streamers of green and gold – Australia’s sporting livery that Hughes wore with such pride and proficiency – as affixed by members of the local chamber of commerce. 

Last weekend, the town that marks the midway point along the Pacific Highway linking Sydney with Brisbane, staged its second annual River Festival, an occasion that the Council hopes will become a staple on the events calendar.

For the Nambucca River is as integral to Macksville’s identity as was its famous cricketing son – as the handwritten signs dotting the roadside into town proclaiming ‘fat, tasty oysters’ attest.

And even though the tragically premature passing of their batting prodigy, who would have turned 26 on the second day of the Festival, hung as heavily over those events as the afternoon thunder clouds that gather above the Nambucca Valley those who went along say it was an uplifting celebration.

Which is the unashamed theme of tomorrow’s funeral.

James Henderson, Hughes’s manager who spoke to the media in Macksville today on behalf of the batsman’s devastated family, made it clear that while tomorrow’s service at Macksville High School that will be broadcast nationally and beyond, it was above all a chance for the local community to honour and celebrate one of their beloved own.

“The love and the support that this community has shown for the Hughes family has always been there, but it’s come through so strongly in this last seven days,” Henderson said.

“And I urge the people of Macksville and the broader region to continue to do that in the next months, as time heals but the family will be looking for more and more support in the months ahead.

“Tomorrow is going to be a very sad day as every funeral is, but it’s also going to be a wonderful celebration of a young man who achieved so much in 26 years of life.

“Again the family has asked me to stress to the local community and broader area that this service is for them – Phillip’s community is this community.”

It is for that reason that around 80 per cent of the available space in the Sports Hall at Macksville High – from where Phillip Hughes left to pursue his cricket aspirations less than a decade ago – was set aside for those local friends and families who spiritually made that journey with him.

More: Phillip Hughes funeral details

The other seats will be occupied by esteemed members of the cricket family who remain disbelieving of the fate to have befallen their ever-smiling former teammate.

In addition to the current Australian Test and Southern Stars teams, they include ex-Test greats Mark Taylor, Sir Richard Hadlee, Brian Lara, Virat Kohli, Ravi Shastri, Dean Jones, Shane Warne, Mike Hussey, Ricky Ponting, Glenn McGrath, Adam Gilchrist, Justin Langer, Simon Katich, Steve Waugh, Mark Waugh, Brett Lee and Damien Martyn.

Also in attendance will be the Prime Minister of Australia, Tony Abbott, the Leader of the Federal Opposition, Bill Shorten and the Premier of New South Wales, Mike Baird.

The service, which begins at 2pm and will be conducted by Father Michael Alcock, will include eulogies from Phillip’s brother Jason, sister Megan, relative Nino Ramunno and a tribute from Test captain, teammate and adopted “older brother” Michael Clarke.

Clarke, along with Australia’s Twenty20 captain Aaron Finch and Hughes’s South Australian teammate and Adelaide housemate Tom Cooper – who was at the other end of the pitch when the left-hander was felled last Tuesday – will be among the pallbearers.

And when the funeral service, which will be televised and broadcast live to every home in Australia to the quiet gratitude and ongoing wonderment of Phillip Hughes’s family, is finished a very public, final outpouring of grief and gratitude will flood the lush roadside verges of Macksville.

In keeping with the family’s wishes.

“The past week has certainly been a very, very difficult time for the (Hughes) family and for the broader community,” Henderson said

“They have been very moved by the support that’s come from here in Australia and all the way around the world where Phillip’s untimely and sad passing has affected so many people.

“They are very proud that their son has made such an impression on the people that knew him, and obviously people who have come to know him through this unfortunate circumstance.

“After the service, Phillip’s hearse will make its way very slowly down through the main street of Macksville, and people who are at the high school for the service are asked to line the streets to pay the most fitting farewell to Macksville’s favourite.

“Also tomorrow evening, the whole town will stop to celebrate Phillip’s life.

“The family wants to see as many people as it possibly can.

“Obviously, logistically that will be quite a challenge but we have arrangements in place and the community is ready for everybody to take an hour and to celebrate Phillip’s life together.

“Hughesy was a real no-fuss guy, and I know he would be looking down at all of this and wondering what the hell is going on.

“He’s made an unbelievable impression on this country and the family would like to thank everybody for that and hope that everybody tomorrow has a chance to stop and reflect on Phillip’s life.”

The Mayor of Nambucca Shire, Councillor Rhonda Hoban, noted today the huge influx of people and interest in the community that was previously best known for raising sugar bananas, mangoes and avocadoes as well as a world-class cricketer.

She softly lamented, in words that so many in Macksville and beyond have uttered since last Tuesday, that if only that spotlight could have shone for more heartwarming reasons.

Cr Hoban recounted the tale told to her in recent days by a resident who – upon one day finding herself lined up alongside Australia’s Test cricketer number 408 in a local shop – felt obliged to announce: “I’ve never stood next to a famous person”.

To which Phillip Hughes replied, with trademark humility and a flash of that grin: “who, me?”.

It’s that endearing, enduring spirit of Macksville that burned so deeply and so purely within Phillip Hughes that will undoubtedly help those he has left behind to chart a path forward.

“Macksville is a strong and close community, and we’re all shocked and saddened by what has happened to Phillip,” Cr Hoban said

“We are proud of Phillip’s achievements and we will remember him fondly as a favourite son – a warm, unaffected young man who was a delight to be around.

“In the days, weeks and months ahead our community will do whatever it can to be there for Phillip’s family.”

Today marked one week since Australia’s sporting landscape changed forever.

Tomorrow will yield perhaps its saddest day.