The first anti-hero calls on the ‘invisible’ heroes to carry on

It is unprecedented that we present a local hero who does not want to be recognised as one.

But after some consideration and gentle persuasion, Andrew “Foz” Frommolt, a 50-year-old trail blazer from Beacon Bay, has agreed to be written up.

Frommolt is proud of the trails he has opened up for walkers and cyclists near Beacon Bay Country Club, including the latest project, one of the most popular, the Hillcrest Trails. It explores a piece of urban bush between Hillcrest Drive and Coad Road.

People have reacted with curiosity to the little playpark that has appeared on the corner of these roads with an intriguing garden — but this is just the window, which opens up to a new and accessible world of benches, garden art, ponds and exciting nature education walks.

Friends of Hillcrest Trails can be found on Facebook and even Google maps, but it is a small group of 15 or so people, and an even smaller trio of Sharonne Dewing and Jeff Fetting, after the lead set by the ever-active Frommolt, who have made this area zing with excitement.

Dog walkers, pensioners, school groups and one lawyer, who just wanted to be with his own thoughts and music at a bench, are discovering and relishing the new access to nature in their suburb.

Frommolt agreed to stop his busy day selling construction machines and consulting to give the interview for one reason only: he wants to encourage the “invisible people” — individuals in the community who care deeply about core issues but don’t want to be in the limelight — to carry on with determination and quiet courage.

And so, today we introduce the anti-hero — he prefers “non-hero” — but a hero nonetheless, who shies away from acknowledgment and public fuss, and just wants to get on with the job.

Don’t stop him in the street or supermarket and gush. He won’t like it. Maybe let him know quietly what you are doing!

To those on the periphery of diving in, he says: “Find something (in the community) for which you have a deep passion, something that fits in with your schedule, and go out and enjoy it. Just find what you can do in whatever small way to give back.”

He says the support that is now gathering momentum started when people saw him working on the trails, and once the story was known, support came from local businesses and privately.

While his business is finding and selling equipment from mini-excavators to giant graders, it is in the bush that he finds solace, simply being on his own enjoying interacting with nature with the goal to conserve the environment and open it up as a marvel for everyone.

He has a network to call on for the heavy lifting, so trails are mown, rocks are placed at the entrance, and one guy kept bringing so many large pipes that Frommolt asked him to stop.

He and Dewing came up with the idea of “Pipe Pals”, and so those maverick benches — pipes held aloft at odd angles, or found pieces of antique timber simply resting between pipe ends, was their workable upcycled solution.

He has been a cyclist all his life, and recalls how, as children, they would ride in this bush. Later he rode trails “just for the jol” and so the 3km trails in Hillcrest park, together with an adjoining 1.5km piece of bush, are a progression of this love of activity.

Donations, offers of help, ideas and feet on the ground have made this project a personal best.

As we end the interview at a picnic table on a sublime wintry afternoon, and Frommolt and Dewing drift off organising this and that in the park, a group of hikers appear from the trail.

Pensioner Estelle Brookes, retired bank manager Louis Ehrke and his bookkeeper wife, Esmé, are delighted at their new outdoor venue and regularly pick up bags of trash “out of love”.

Resident Gerald Berlyn, 70, appears and chips in: “I ride my mountain bike here and fall off with regular monotony!”

We all chuckle, and I look about. Frommolt has vanished.

Daily Dispatch