Greg Newey and his wife, Beth.
Vale Greg Newey
Story: Alex Smith | Photos: Supplied | Published: November 2020
“We have lost a champion of family, community, sport and above all, a champion of honesty and decency”
In mid-September, fate conspired to take from us one of nature’s most distinguished gentlemen and a true pillar of our society. In his 76 years, Gregory George (Greg) Newey, made a remarkable contribution in every facet of his life.
He was a devoted family man, dedicated to wife Beth, their two children, Anthony and Cherie, son-in-law Tony, three grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. Greg saw his family as his greatest accomplishment, but his legacy also features extraordinary achievements for the Warwick community and for his passions of sports shooting and classic cars.
Raised and married in Newcastle, Greg and Beth chose Warwick in which to bring up their family and run a business. After a period with a news agency, they took over Warwick Outdoors and Sports and set about applying their entrepreneurial flair. It became one of the finest, most highly regarded firearm and sporting goods shops in the country and combined with his shooting prowess, made Greg a household name among generations of shooting enthusiasts.
Greg was fortunate that his business, his passion for sport generally, and the shooting sports in particular, were intertwined.
But this also added to the workload. Warwick Outdoors and Sports was a 7-days-a-week operation, trading in-store 6 days, and then bundling up the mobile store to attend a competition clay target shoot somewhere in Queensland or northern New South Wales on the Sunday. This hectic business life and the demands of a growing family didn’t slow Greg down. He volunteered an enormous amount of time to community leadership. Some weeks, every night would be taken up with meetings.
Among his achievements, Greg was President of the Warwick Chamber of Commerce, the inaugural Chair of Warwick TAFE and a driving force behind it, Chair of the Warwick Tourism and Events Board, Chair of the Warwick Fire Brigade Board, a Paul Harris Fellow and President of Rotary, Treasurer of the Warwick RSL, and the role in which I knew him best, President of the Warwick Gun Club for more than 20 years.
In addition to all this, he competed in national and international clay target shooting at the highest level, winning a World Cup Gold Medal in Lonato Italy in 1992 and narrowly missing selection by one place in the Barcelona Olympic Games team.
He was also passionate about fine motor cars and in his later years, found more time to devote to his collection of classic cars and share some precious time pursuing this interest with Beth and his brother Jeff.
Greg’s love of shooting sports and fine cars were in many ways connected. Those who dedicate their spare time to both do so because of the history, tradition, and etiquette that accompany both pastimes, in addition to the love of fine machinery and craftsmanship. Fine sporting guns and indeed classic cars represent a way of life and a discipline. The real enjoyment came from sharing this passion with like-minded friends.
Greg did much to teach the next generations about these things. He established clay target shooting as a sport at Nudgee College in Brisbane and coached Scots College students in Warwick. Greg would teach countless young people the right way of enjoying sporting firearms and the importance of adhering to the etiquette established centuries ago.
Since that fateful day in September, Greg has been honored by gun clubs across the nation.
We have lost a champion of family, community, sport and above all, a champion of honesty and decency. As we farewell Greg, we also pay tribute to his wife Beth as she battles on courageously to recover from her injuries.
Farewell Greg.
