In his own community, Grant Telfer is remembered as an engineer and free spirit who rode his bicycle barefoot and dressed in white overalls.
Much further afield than his trusty bike could take him, Mr Telfer's legacy has been the creation of an iconic playground in his tiny home town of Monash in South Australia's Riverland.
Known for his handiwork, he also built sheds for a living and invented the gopher outdoor mobility scooter.
Mr Telfer died in December at the age of nearly 90.
Fundraising is underway for a $40,000 statue in his honour at the Monash Adventure Park, where the original playground known as Grant Park, then later as the Monash Adventure Playground, was created.
The playground began with a small slide in the 1960s for the town's children.
When he semi-retired in the 1970s, his designs became more ambitious and soon the two-hectare reserve was filled with 180 pieces of steel play equipment.
It became an attraction for families and, as word spread, busloads of tourists would seek out the thrill of racing down the towering slides on hessian bags, whizzing around in steel cages or soaring across the playground on the flying fox.
'Put Monash on worldwide map'
By the 1980s, an estimated 300,000 people a year were visiting what had become one of South Australia's biggest attractions.
Archival videos of the playground on social media today attract thousands of opinions on whether the playground was good, old-fashioned fun or plain dangerous.
"Absolutely loved this place. I remember getting burnt by the metal on hot days," one Facebook user wrote.
The playground was closed in 1992 amid growing concerns about litigation and an inability to secure public liability insurance.
It reopened as the Monash Adventure Park in 1996 with green lawns replacing the dirt, soft fall instead of grape marc and modern play equipment.
Berri Barmera Mayor Peter Hunt paid tribute to Mr Telfer.
"He put Monash and of course the Riverland on the worldwide map," Mr Hunt said.
"The amount of tourists who have visited that place … it would be astronomical."
'Natural interest in making things'
As a child, Mr Telfer loved making things.
He made a canoe out of a sheet of corrugated iron and used it to accompany his high school teacher on a swim across Lake Bonney.
In his late teens, he made his own welder using parts from an old tractor.
And when he heard the Renmark Gliding Club needed a shed, he built one at the age of just 20 and went on to start a business making sheds that are still in operation today — 70 years later.
Daughter Alison Halupka said her father didn't have any formal qualifications.
"He just had a natural interest in making things from steel and over the years he just seemed to have a natural engineering mind and physics mind for putting things together," Ms Halupka said.
First to design the gopher
Mr Telfer was part of a group called Technical Aids for Disabled and was asked to design a three-wheeled hand-propelled tricycle for children who didn't have the use of their legs.
"He was thrilled to think kids who couldn't ride an ordinary bike could jump on their hand-propelled one and join the other kids," Ms Halupka said.
"He was selling them at cost, not to make any money."
This invention led to enquiries for a motorised outdoor scooter, which Mr Telfer designed and trademarked as the gopher.
It has since become a generic household name and was manufactured by Mr Telfer's company until the availability of cheaper imports made it too difficult to compete.
Statue tribute planned
Ms Halupka worked alongside her dad until she and her husband took over his shed-building business 20 years ago.
"People have asked me, did your dad encourage you to work in a man's world and I would say, no, he didn't encourage me, he didn't discourage me either," she said.
"I don't think he put people into boxes, he had a very broad mind."
Mr Telfer didn't put much stock in social conventions and he'd wear overalls and ride his bike barefoot between local towns.
"Sometimes it was mental health, he would jump on his bike and ride to Pinnaroo to clear his mind," Ms Halupka said.
And she said while her dad would not have wanted any public recognition, she was grateful for the community support for the statue project, which was halfway toward reaching its funding goal.
"That could be their legacy to all the fun he gave them," she said.
