BILL D.S. DHILLON
BILL D.S. DHILLON 2/10/1937 – 26/1/2013 Bill Dhillon, founder of Gisborne Squash Courts (1972) and Bindi Vineyard (1988), passed on January 26th aged 75. Bill was born in Punjab in northern India in the small farming village Bahman Wala, just to the south of Amritsar. His name was Darshan Singh Dhillon. He would be dubbed ‘Bill’ two decades later at Ballarat Grammar School. He was the youngest of six children. His parents farmed a small holding, just a few acres, which was insufficient to support the family. His father moved to Malaya (now Malaysia) before he was born to establish a plantation of rubber trees and would return every two years to India to see his family. The three youngest children were born two years apart, the timing coinciding with these annual visits, plus nine months. The family’s village is now located alongside the India/Pakistan border and close to a major railway line. During the time of the partition, following the departure of the British in 1947, this area witnessed much violence (estimates number those killed as approximately 500,000) as Hindus and Muslims crossed the border. Bill (aged 10) and his youngest sister were sent away from this violence to live with another family for a year and a half to a safer town, Preet Nagar (Town of Love). In 1950 Read more …