In memory of Urunga character, ‘Herbie’ Nuster

ALBERT Nuster, 90, known fondly as Herbie, passed away peacefully at his nursing home in the Masonic Village Raleigh on 6 March, 2026. 

Herbie requested no funeral service and was privately cremated with his famous hat placed respectfully upon his head.

It was the right thing to do; his hat was as famous around Urunga as the man himself, Herbie’s friend James Hughes told News Of The Area.

“Adorning the hat were bird feathers from the sulphur crested cockatoo, black cockatoo and peacock; they were the hallmark of the hat,” Mr Hughes said.

Born in Esslingen am Neckar in Germany in 1936, Herbie was a cabinet maker by trade.

After completing his apprenticeship he left Germany and set off on a lifetime of world travel, visiting 84 countries and living in some too.

Mr Hughes, who had coffee with Herbie most days of the week, said that in those days his friend would have travelled by ship, motorbike, hitch-hiking, walking and trains.

“I have three giant boxes of paperwork from all this travel,” Mr Hughes said.

“He photographed everything; he had a great eye for a picture. There are 40 albums of black-and-white and colour photographs from many years of travel.

“He’d been everywhere.”

When he visited Australia for a second time, he lived in Queanbeyan near Canberra before moving to Urunga.

In his mid-sixties Herbie suffered a stroke which resulted in paralysis of his right arm and partially in his leg.

“This is when he got his stick, which he would wave at people, always in jest,” Mr Hughes said.

“His ‘warning wave’ became well known around town.”

Herbie enjoyed a connection with nature around Urunga and then Raleigh, which fed his enchantment for wildlife – birds especially, and animals, seashells, plants and mushrooms.

He didn’t appear to have family, and locals understood him to be a loner satisfied with a quiet life.

Just over two years ago, it was deemed “sensible” for Herbie to move to a nursing home where he could receive the care he needed.

“He was sharp as a tack but losing physical abilities,” Mr Hughes said.

“We worked through his possessions, and he donated his library of books to Urunga school.”

Herbie is famously the centrepiece of local artist David Bromley’s captivating trompe-l’oeil (trick of the eye) street mural in Urunga.

“When I asked him to go on the mural, he said yes and later on agreed to go on the ‘Wanted’ poster,” Mr Bromley told NOTA.

“I told him probably people would offer to take him to the Police Station to claim the five hundred pounds reward.

“He said that was okay.

“Once, when I was putting finishing touches on the mural, a woman was looking at the ‘Highly Dangerous Villain poster’ and said, ‘Why, what’s he done?’.”

Reflecting on 90 years of Herbie’s life, the question might be: “what hasn’t he done?”.

By Andrea FERRARI