Grieving father pays tribute to son killed in tractor accident, responds to criticism

Grief-stricken father Travis Membrey has paid tribute to his “easy-going” son after he was killed in a farming accident on Wednesday.

Darcy Membrey, 2, was hit and trapped by a fertiliser bin on a dairy farm in Warrnambool.

Paramedics were immediately called but were unable to revive him.

His dad told 3AW Drive the two-year-old’s smile ensured he “could get away with anything”.

“He didn’t want to be the baby of the family, he just wanted to be treated as one of the boys,” he said.

“Everything to him was easy-going, there wasn’t any fuss and he’d always look after himself.”

Mr Membrey thanked those who sent supportive messages to the family but defended his choice to bring young children onto a working farm.

He told Nick McCallum if his children weren’t at work with him, he’d hardly see them.

“That’s the hardest thing, these kids were brought up on tractors and knew what was happening,” he said.

“(Sometimes) I work eight to 10 weeks straight without a day off, working from 4am to 9pm.

“If we couldn’t get Darcy to sleep, his next option was to jump into the tractor and you’d look at him and see him smiling.

“You can say that kids aren’t supposed to be on farms but that’s how they are brought up – you’ve just got to be careful.

“I know now that I’ll no longer be able to have my children at work, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back because it happened in my workshop where I’m always at.”

Mr Membrey paid tribute to the emergency services who arrived on the scenes within minutes.

“They were professional, they were able to do a lot more than I ever could,” he said.

Click PLAY to hear the full interview on 3AW Drive