Donald Frank Henrickson (best known as Don) was born in Innisfail, Queensland; his parents having immigrated to Australia from Finland. He first met Patricia, a local girl of Irish decent when he was about 5 years old. The two would marry and have 3 children – Karen-anne, Desley and Graham.

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Don was in the hardware business and as a young married couple, they moved to Papua New Guinea where he joined Burns Philp & Co. They lived in PNG for 16 years and while there Don developed a passion for fishing. Whenever possible he and the family would be boating around the islands and he'd be fine-tuning his skills as an angler.

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Like many expats, they returned to Australia when PNG was granted independence, first living in Brisbane and then Caboolture before travelling around the country and buying a house in Darwin.

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Don & Pat spent time on Palari Station before buying a house in a small town just south of Mackay called Sarina. Don spent his final years here and it's where he and Pat earned quite a reputation for rescuing native animals and returning them to health and the wild.

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Don believed visits to the Doctor where only necessary when you were on deaths door so had to be dragged kicking and screaming when Pat forced him to see a GP because she was convinced all was not well. Don was diagnosed with advanced terminal brain cancer and given no more than 12 weeks to live.

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The family pulled together and thanks to the intervention of his Daughter Desley with her extensive medical knowledge and experience, the 12 weeks became 2 years.

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He was a reserved, honest and quietly spoken man who never spoke ill of others. He was a thinker, did as promised and always put the interests of others ahead of his own.