Friends remember local character ‘Dundee’

According to the  people who knew him, the photo is both telling and typical: Ian McGavern, known locally as Dundee, is inside  one of his favourite local haunts, the Front Street bistro The Beach, flanked by two other patrons. 

His middle finger — the left one that has a tattoo of a lizard on it — is extended, although he doesn’t look particularly angry.  There’s a Heineken bottle in the bottom corner of the frame.

Hours after the photo was taken, Dundee, who earned his local nickname for his years spent in Australia, would be found dead in the harbour.

 “You’ll see that gesture in a lot of his photos, even at weddings,” said Tanya Bartell, a bartender at The Beach who knew Dundee for about 20 years. 

“He had this lizard tattoo on his middle finger, so that was his thing. Some people called him the old lizard.”

Those who knew him describe Dundee as a hard partying free spirit who disliked authority but also had a caring side. 

Ms. Bartell said this past Christmas, Dundee gave her a chocolate rum cake and a box of crayons and cartoon movies for her six-year-old daughter.

His life philosophy might be best summed up by another bar patron. Asked why Dundee had an eagle tattoo on his face, the response came: “Why did he do it? Because he wanted to.”

The cause of his death has not been made official. 

Police released a statement earlier in the week saying they did not believe foul play was involved. His friends reject the idea Dundee would ever take his own life; most speculate that he may have slipped near the harbour’s edge and struck his head on something.

Martin Harvey knew Dundee.  Seated at the corner of the bar that was Dundee’s perch of choice at The Beach, Harvey said  he had done some work to his motorbikes in the past and recalled that Dundee had a pretty wide swath of experience in the trades, including electrical work, woodwork, painting and masonry.

“He was good with his hands,” said Harvey.

Another patron says Dundee claimed to have raised a puma from a cub.

When someone doubts this story, Ms. Bartell says “Is it true? I’m sure most of his stories are true.”

The stories come thick and fast when people recall the 66-year-old. They also tend to differ depending on the teller. 

No one can seem to agree on how long Dundee  had lived in Bermuda or for how long he lived in Australia. 

Some argue over whether he had a connection to Canada.

Before he  died, he had talked about going to the U.S. to visit relatives or going on walkabout in Australia, according to some of his friends.

Bob Greig knew Dundee for  about 25 years. Dundee lived in an apartment below his home and act as a sort of property manager for about three years.

“Really nice guy, a bit crazy, but really nice guy,” he said.

He said that while in Australia, Dundee spray painted yachts for a living.

“I don’t think he ever did that in Bermuda. He did whatever came around when he needed money. When he worked, he was a good worker.”

He described Dundee’s existence as transient. He recalled him weathering a hurricane while living in a tent near a beach.

“His tent was half-filled with water and he had a case of beer. ‘Otherwise I would have flown away,’ he told me.”

Mr Greig chose Dundee to be among his crew when his company landed a contract to build the reverse osmosis plant in the Cayman Islands.

The trip, according to Mr Greig, was a fruitless experiment.

“We went out drinking every night to the point where we came home with no money.”

One evening, Dundee didn’t show up to work. Someone made an inquiry to his whereabouts. The story that follows involves a woman and a bar and culminates with Dundee falling back into an interior window air conditioner with his scuba snorkel and flippers in his room. Bottom line: Dundee had injured his back.

“It was hysterical,” said Mr Greig.

Funeral services for Dundee are scheduled for 2 pm tomorrow at Christ Presbyterian Cemetery on Middle Road.