Lachlan Szery is a man on a mission to return the Tablelands
to a place of excellence in brass music. At 25, he’s young for
his elevated position as Cluster Instrumental Music teacher.
For anyone who doesn’t speak Department of Education
lingo, he manages the instrumental music program for much
of the Atherton Tablelands.
“I direct the brass band at Atherton High and I’m also co-
director of Hot Shots big band. Brass is my biggest thing and
it’s what we are lacking in the community a bit.”
Focused though he may be, he knows that he can’t rush
the changes he wants to see. “It’s just time. Alicia (his
predecessor) was a woodwind player so she naturally
attracted woodwind players. I’m brass so that’s what I’ll
attract. It ebbs and flows and just does its thing.”
Based at Atherton High but spending his week travelling to
the Kairi, Tolga, Yungaburra and Atherton primary schools
which feed into Atherton High, as well as evenings of private
tuition, Szery is busier than ever but at the top of his game.
For nearly a decade, Szery has been tutoring others,
beginning when he was just 16 years old. Learning by
teaching others is something he proudly encourages his
current students to do. “I say ‘if you want to get better at what
you’re doing, here, have a student’. It’s like a little project for
them.”
Szery trained in Brisbane, at the Conservatorium of Music.
There, he kept busy with his studies and tutoring. He
knew that a return to the country was on the cards upon
graduation, but it wasn’t a boomerang back to his home
town that he dreamed of. “It was a sea-change. I’m from
Mackay originally and Mackay wasn’t a suitable place for us
to go back to because it has changed so much. So, we honed
in on here.”
He and his wife Sarah love the community up here, so much
that they recently bought their first home – a sign of a long
future in the region.
The couple relocated in 2015 to the open spaces of Tolga
14 What’s On & Where To Go April 2019
and a part-time job gave Lachlan a break from city life and
an opportunity to recalibrate and find his way as a member
of a new community. During his time on the Tablelands, he
has thrown himself into local activities and you’ll regularly
find him performing at the region’s many events. A seasoned
performer, standing on stage is nothing short of fun for the
multi-instrumentalist. But there is one gig that reliably gives
him the flutters and instils in him a reverent anxiety: the
“bugle call” on Anzac Day.
For Szery, the significance of its history is constantly on
his mind when he plays the Last Post. “It’s never the size
of the crowd – it’s that you’re standing there in front of
the cenotaph. That’s what gets you and it doesn’t happen
until the first note sounds. It is heavy. It’s the weight of the
occasion.”
It’s a version of the ANZAC Day story we don’t often hear:
how it affects younger generations for whom war is only a
distant reality. Szery’s attitude towards his role tells us that
the ANZACs are not forgotten, and their sacrifices have a
lasting relevance well into the 21st century.
“It’s very special for a lot of people and you can see when
you’ve done a good job. There should be no reaction – it just
hangs in the air.”
If music is where Szery is focused, it’s through his home
brewing that he has an outlet to relax.
“For me, it’s in my shed so it’s a bit of an escape, a bit of a
hobby,” he says. He brewed his first batch last year after
receiving a kit for his birthday. He has provided friends and
family with his brew ever since.
No matter what Lachlan Szery’s mission is, it all comes back
to music in some way. His motto for living, learned from a
university lecturer is “music is the one thing
that’s like everything.”
Yolande Schefe is a mum, a writer, a
teacher and celebrant but she mostly
identifies as a beer drinker.