Gone but not forgotten: 20 late business icons who shaped Qld
Queensland has consistently punched above its weight in business and these 20 visionaries shaped the state. They may no longer be with us but their legacy lives on. See the list.
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Queensland is renowned for its business visionaries whose skills and daring have helped transform the state from backwater to one that now rivals Australia’s economic power houses Victoria and NSW.
They may not be with us anymore but their achievements and dramas are certainly not forgotten.
We have listed 20 significant business people who have passed away in the past 20 years.
Their contributions and many more who are not on the list continue to be felt in the Sunshine State, in Australia and around the world.
Sir John Pidgeon
Renowned construction and development icon Sir John Pidgeon was behind many of Queensland’s best known buildings.
The family company FA Pidgeon & Son was started by his father in 1927.
A Churchie old boy Sir John joined the family business in 1946 after service in the AIF.
With his sister and business partner, Valmai, the company expanded to a point where by the late 80s it was the dominant force in the Queensland construction sector and went on to leave its mark on the skylines of Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
The Pidgeon name became synonymous with building Queensland until the 1990s when it was decided to cease that part of its business activities.
It was calculated at that time that about 30 per cent of Brisbane’s CBD had been built or developed by FA Pidgeon & Son.
Key projects undertaken by the company were Waterfront Place and Eagle Street Pier in the Brisbane CBD, the Gold Coast Oasis Shopping Centre and hotel including the Broadbeach Monorail, the Suncorp Metway building, Cathedral Square and residential towers at Dockside in Brisbane.
When asked which was his favourite project, Sir John would answer “The next one!”.
He was together with his sister Valmai, also highly regarded for philanthropy to the arts, education and heritage preservation.
Sir John Pidgeon passed away in 2016, aged 89.
Ken Talbot
Mining executive Ken Talbot had a long association with the coal sector and was the principal shareholder and former chief executive of Macarthur Coal Ltd.
The son of a truck driver, who attended Mitchelton State School, Talbot was a billionaire who would describe himself as a simple coal miner and he never lost the common touch.
He had amassed more than 36 years experience in the coal industry in which he was a pioneer, opening up a whole new market for low volatile coals.
As well as his business success, he was a generous philanthropist and established the Talbot Family Foundation.
Talbot temporarily stepped down as the CEO of the Macarthur Group Companies after he became involved in a controversy concerning loans to Labor MP Gordon Nuttall, who was later jailed for corruption.
In 2007, the Queensland Crime and Misconduct Commission charged Talbot with corruptly making payments to Nuttall totalling close to $360,000.
Talbot was scheduled to face court in Brisbane in August 2010 on 35 charges relating to corruption.
After leaving Macarthur he became involved with iron ore company Sundance Resources through an investment by his company Talbot Group.
However, before clearing his name, he died in Congo after his chartered flight with other Sundance executives crashed.
Ken Talbot passed away in 2010, he was 59.
Keith Williams
One of the members of the so-called white shoe brigade Keith Williams changed the face of Australian tourism.
In a career spanning more than four decades, the entrepreneur frequently battled environmentalists and government bureaucrats opposed to his tourism projects.
Williams’ father was a postman and he left school aged 13 and took up a job as a petrol bowser attendant to assist his family financially during the war.
By the aged of 16 he had started his first business making leather motor cycle seats, saddle bags and other motor cycle accessories with his mother.
Through his involvement in the advent of water skiing in Australia he moved his business to the Gold Coast and soon became the country’s largest producer of waterski equipment. He was also Australian waterski champion from 1957 to 1960.
He entered into the world of tourism in 1957 with the establishment of Surfers Paradise Gardens waterski shows in partnership with lifelong friend Jack Joel.
In 1965 he moved this popular aquatic show to Carrara on the Nerang River and the following year built the Surfers Paradise International Raceway.
He was recognised as the man who introduced theme parks to Australia with the creation of Sea World in 1971 on the Gold Coast.
He also opened the Whitsundays up to the world through the development of Hamilton Island as a world-class tourist destination, and also developed the Daydream Island and Port Hinchinbrook resort. He was also inaugural chief executive of Gold Coast Tourism.
Keith Williams died in 2011, aged 82.
Paula Stafford
Growing up in rural Victoria, Stafford studied dress design at Emily McPherson School of Domestic Economy, a part of Melbourne Technical College.
Settling on the Gold Coast in 1943, she had four children in five years and with her husband established a beach hire business and soon created beachwear upon request.
The bikini is generally credited to Louis Reard in 1946, but two-piece swimming costumes had existed before then.
Stafford had been making them for herself since the 1930s, but only gradually turned it into a business.
In the 1940s, wartime shortages led to a desire to save fabric, which led to costumes becoming more skimpy and the two piece was born.
Her styles became popular on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne and she began manufacturing operations with a machinist working in her attic.
She later built a factory, and opened a shop, called the Tog Shop, and also sold mail-order.
The firm also expanded into leisurewear for men and women and she sold her clothes to stores including British retailers Selfridges and Liberty of London, and in Australia Myer, Georges, Buckleys, and David Jones.
She also founded a modelling agency and a hotel.
Paula Stafford passed away in 2022, aged 102.
Leo Williams
It was his association with rugby as a player and administrator that Leo Williams was most renowned but it was his role as a commercial lawyer and then a successful business career that he was also remembered.
A Nudgee College old boy, he established the legal firm Williams and Williams in 1966 with his father and was associated with the mining, media and sporting industries throughout the 1960s, 1970s and the early 1980s.
He left his mark on the boards of Expo ‘88, the Lang Park Trust, the Housing Industry Association, the Australian Housing Corporation, the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation and the Indigenous Land Corporation.
Williams retired from his full-time legal practice in 1983 to concentrate on his business activities and was appointed to a number of boards during the 1970s and 1980s.
He was the chairman of radio station Triple M Brisbane when it was established in 1980 after the state government offered up a new FM radio licence for potential bidders.
During the 1980s he was also chairman of the Brisbane Entertainment Centre, the Brisbane Bullets and served on the Channel 7 Board.
A former Queensland Reds player he served as president of Queensland Rugby Union, chairman of Australian Rugby Union and as a board member of Rugby World Cup, eventually becoming chairman.
Williams was president of Tattersall’s Club in Brisbane, and was a driving force behind the club’s redevelopment in the early 1990s. The Williams Room at the club is named after him.
Leo Williams passed away in 2009, aged 68.
Margaret Mittelheuser
Born in Bundaberg, her family moved to Brisbane after she won a place at The University of Queensland when she was only 16.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce in 1952 and was the first female graduate to work at the Commonwealth Department of the Interior.
Mittelheuser found work as a research officer with a Brisbane stockbroking company before moving to Sydney where she joined the firm of Ralph W King and Yuill.
She later opened the Brisbane office of Ralph W King and Yuill and in 1964 returned to Sydney.
Later she was able to buy a seat on the Sydney stock exchange.
At the age of 33 Mittelheuser was the first female partner of an Australian stockbroking firm and possibly the world at a time when the financial sector was entirely dominated by men.
She retired in 2006 making her one of the longest serving stockbrokers in Australia.
Mittelheuser was also deeply committed to the community, and supported many women’s organisations, libraries, educational institutions and the arts.
These include the Queensland Art Gallery, the State Library of Queensland, the Girl Guides Association (Qld), Griffith University, the Australian Federation of University Women and the Board of Trustees of Brisbane Girls Grammar School.
Margaret Mittelheuser passed away in 2013, she was 82.
Wallace Bishop
Wallace Bishop, or Wal as he liked to be known, was the grandson of the first Wallace Bishop, who arrived in Queensland in 1909.
His grandfather opened his first factory in Elizabeth St and was joined by his son Carl in 1917. Wal joined the family company in 1950 – the day after his year 10 exams at Brisbane Boys’ College where he was dux of his class.
At the time, the business had two stores in Brisbane’s CBD, including its Wallace Bishop Arcade in King George Square.
Bishop became chief executive in 1976 and drove strong growth in the business coinciding with the construction of major shopping malls.
He worked with then Brisbane Lord Mayor Roy Harvey and other business leaders to develop the Queen Street Mall in time for the Commonwealth Games and royal tour of 1982.
In 1997, Wallace Bishop acquired Hardy Brothers Jewellers, a 166-year-old business.
After leaving the day-to-day running of the company, he became chairman.
The fifth-generation family business was a national brand and at one stage had more than 50 stores and 500 employees.
Bishop also had leadership roles in the Rotary Club of Brisbane and Australia, and drove establishment of the Queensland branches of the Child Accident Prevention Foundation and the Royal Surf Life Saving Foundation.
He served as commodore of the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron.
Wal Bishop passed away in 2022, aged 88.
Kevin Driscoll
The son of a sewing machine salesman, Driscoll was described as a larger than life character.
At the age of 28 he took a step into the corporate world and won a financial stake in the building and construction industry through National Homes which was tasked with building houses in Queensland mining towns.
The son-in-law of the construction and mining industry entrepreneur Sir Leslie Theiss Driscoll worked his way up through the building industry and became the founding president of the Queensland Home Builder’s Association, which later merged with the Queensland Housing Industry Association.
Through his membership of the Companies and Securities Advisory Board from 1989 to 1996, Driscoll helped to guide the federal government’s business policies of the time.
He left his mark on the boards of Expo ‘88, the Lang Park Trust, the Housing Industry Association, the Australian Housing Corporation, the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation and the Indigenous Land Corporation.
He was also chairman of the Business Enterprise Committee of the Indigenous Land Corporation.
Driscoll’s business expertise and insightful purchase of property led to his own personal wealth creation over his lifetime and he purchased a total of seven cattle stations and eight hotels across Queensland through his life.
Kevin Driscoll passed away in 2016, aged 88.
Rod Wylie
Rod Wylie was an accountant who over a 50-year period held the position of either company director or chairman of several Queensland companies, including national and international organisations.
Wylie became a chartered accounting partner at the age of 25, subsequently becoming senior partner in Peat Marwick Mitchell while also playing a leading role for the Institute of Chartered Accountants at the state and national levels.
This laid the platform for a career as a company director and chairman with his first such appointment to the board of QUF Industries, later Pauls Ltd, at the age of 39, an association which lasted for more than 30 years.
From 1984 to 2001, Wylie was chairman of Theiss, which lead to his appointment to the board of Leightons where he served for 16 years, 11 of which as deputy chairman.
Having been the chairman of the Queensland Branch of the AMP Society from 1984-1990, Wylie joined the national board in 1986, an appointment which lasted for 14 years.
He was also the chairman of Queensland Alumina, Markwell Fisheries, Australian United Foods and a director of Pioneer Sugar Mills and the Bank of Queensland.
Outside of the cut and thrust of the business world he was also the inaugural chairman of the Queensland Competition Authority for six years; chairman of the Brisbane Cricket Ground Trust; chairman of the Queensland Enterprise Group for 18 years; state chairman of the Institute of Company Directors; chairman of the Red Shield Appeal and President of the Institute of Public Affairs.
Rod Wylie passed away in 2023, aged 95.
Sir Frank Moore
Regarded as the father of Queensland’s multi-billion dollar tourism industry, Sir Frank was a property valuer and radio broadcaster.’
He had a long-time interest in community affairs, in particular the role of the tourism industry in contributing to the growth of national economics and job creation, as well as the social and environmental impacts of tourism.
He was especially interested in evolving tourism products and management disciplines that make for a harmony between public demands for jobs and economic security and environmental and social responsibility.
Sir Frank headed a state government inquiry in 1978 which led to the creation of the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation, now known as Tourism and Events Queensland.
Sir Frank chaired the QTTC from its inception in 1978 until 1990.
He went on to chair the Australian Tourism Industry Association and Australian Tourism Research Institute, Tourism Forecasting Council and Great Southern Railway.
During an illustrious career, he was credited with playing a key role in helping Brisbane secure World Expo ‘88.
He also served as a founding director of Jupiters Ltd which developed the Gold Coast casino, and was also on the board of Gold Coast Airport Corporation, and a member of the World Travel and Tourism Council.
Sir Frank passed away in 2024, aged 93
Sir Robert Mathers
When Robert Mathers joined the family shoe business in Ipswich as a sales assistant it was a long way from creating a retail giant that employed thousands of people.
Despite stiff competition from Brisbane’s then-top fashion emporiums, TC Beirne, Hunters, Fosters, McWhirters and Finney Isles, Mathers outlasted them all to become a national byword in shoes.
From his job as a sales assistant Sir Robert rose through the ranks to become general manager and director by 1960, and following his father’s death in 1973, was appointed chairman and managing director.
By the time he retired in 1990 the company had 280 outlets, employed 2000 people and boasted an annual turnover of $125m.
Outside business hours, Sir Robert was active in politics and public life in general, particularly with Griffith University following his appointment to the University Council in 1978.
He also held numerous directorships including the boards of his beloved Coles Myer, as well as Buderim Ginger, National Mutual Life, Kidston Gold Mines and Finlayson Timber and Hardware.
One of Sir Robert’s passions was the state Liberal Party, of which he was a life member.
He was its honorary treasurer for 14 years and a member of the state executive for four years and the federal council for 13 years.
Sir Robert passed away in 2011, aged 82.
Cyril Golding
Known as Mr Gladstone, Golding was born and raised in the city where his great grandfather was an early pioneer.
He was born with a hole in his heart and doctors predicted he would only live seven days.
He survived but had a number of life threatening medical conditions which required regular hospitalisations, and he missed long periods of school.
He left school aged 13 to be a labourer.
He attended night school and while working in a sawmill, Golding started his first business by operating a truck for its owner in return for a 50 per cent share of the income.
In 1942, he formed Golding Contractors, known simply as Golding, which grew from a one truck operation into one of the largest privately owned companies in the state.
Major projects which Golding contributed include: the Queensland Alumina Refinery, Gladstone; Yarwun Alumina Refinery, Gladstone; Boyne Smelter, Gladstone; Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal; Port of Airlie Marina and Resort; Harbour Town, Gold Coast; Sovereign Island, Gold Coast; Neweipa Wharf, Cape York; Kogan Creek Power station; Kogan Creek Mine; Ensham Mine; Phosphate Hill Mine; and significant civil and mining works on BHP Mitsubishi Alliance mine sites throughout the Bowen Basin.
When Golding sold the business to a private equity firm in 2008, it employed 1000 staff plus contractors throughout Australia, turning over about $350m annually.
He supported CQUniversity and contributed to a wide range of worthwhile causes including the Red Cross emergency accommodation facilities and Gladstone Regional Art Gallery.
Cyril Golding passed away in 2012, aged 92.
Brian Ray
A member of the so-called white shoe brigade, Brian Ray traversed the ups and downs of business as a visionary property developer.
Ray grew up in NSW in Sydney’s western suburbs.
The son of a taxi driver his first job was a brief stint as an articled clerk, which convinced him that the law was not for him.
After spending time overseas he ended up in Brisbane following the purchase by his company, Donlan, of the RJ O’Sullivan land company which had a land bank of sites around the Brisbane suburbs and the Gold Coast.
The timing was impeccable as the property took market off and Ray’s big picture personality was perfectly suited to the times.
However, it came crashing down between 1984 and 1987 when he got caught up in the Costigan royal commission which unravelled bottom-of-the-harbour tax schemes and Ray along with a number of other business people got caught up in it.
He was found not guilty after a five-month trial in the Victorian Supreme Court but he continued to court controversy and was an adviser in the Joh for PM campaign in 1987.
A relentless and natural networker Ray was behind some of Australia’s most notable masterplanned and integrated projects such as the $1bn Salt Village development at Kingscliff in northern NSW.
The Ray Group was behind the design and construction of homes and hotels, villas and apartments, and shopping centres all along the east coast of Australia – from a $500m development at Mount Hotham in the Victorian ski fields to the Sheraton Mirage resorts in Queensland.
Ray, and his Kathy wife died in a plane crash at Victoria’s Mount Hotham in 2005, he was 63.
Thomas Strachan
From a “horse whisperer”, to a labour hire entrepreneur who made the young richlist to a grazier with an inspirational passion for regenerative agriculture, the man from a cattle station near Roma packed plenty into his life.
Thomas Strachan started his business career co-founding Australia’s largest privately owned labour hire company – Australian Workforce Exchange – a labour hire firm across the agribusiness, mining, construction, health and hospitality industries that eventually grew to have 2000 workers on its books.
He sold the company in 2016 and his Australian Pastoral Land Company acquired premier district Roma property Lighthouse, which neighboured his existing property, Lorraine.
In 2019 he started Packhorse – an agribusiness vehicle to sequester carbon – with Tim Samway, the former chairman of Hyperion Asset Management.
They raised about $100m and acquired 30,000ha across Queensland and NSW and aimed to raise $5bn to transform 2 million hectares, using technologies it was funding such as a sensor system that can measure carbon soil sequestration in real time.
In 2022, he died in a plane crash with his son Noah, 20. He was 48.
Sir George Read Fisher
Born in Gladstone, South Australia, into a farming family he graduated from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Engineering.
Sir George first worked at Broken Hill and worked his way up to be the general manager of Zinc Corporation.
With the impending retirement of Mount Isa Mines (MIM) chairman, Julius Kruttschnitt, Fisher joined MIM, then controlled by US company ASARCO, in 1952 as general manager, becoming chairman in 1953.
At Mt Isa he set about building houses and facilities to attract a stable workforce and embarked on a large-scale exploration program resulting in rich new mineral deposits.
By 1959 a copper refinery was built in Townsville facilitating the local refinement of copper and the manufacture of copper products which was in line with his advocacy for local downstream value-adding.
During the 1950s, Sir George was also responsible for construction of Lake Moondarra, the largest private water storage project in Australia and negotiated with the Queensland and federal governments the Mt Isa to Townsville railway reconstruction.
Under his leadership, MIM mine production went from 1500 to 16,000 tons per day, copper production went from zero to 100,000 tons per year and lead production was over 100,000 tons. Mr Isa grew from 6000 people to over 20,000 people.
Sir George retired in 1970, but remained active through his involvement in the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation and the Queensland Country Party.
When James Cook University was established in 1970, he became its Foundation Chancellor. He held that position until 1974.
Sir George passed away in 2007, aged 104.
Betty Byrne Henderson
An All Hallows’ School old girl Betty Byrne Henderson co-founded Byrne Ford in Kedron with her husband Bernie in 1969, playing a vital role in the business from its inception.
Following her husband’s death in 1977, she became governing director and under her leadership, Byrne Ford expanded from 35 to over 140 employees and became a household name in Brisbane’s car market.
In October 1991, the company became the first Australian car dealership to attain Quality Assurance accreditation.
By 1993, the dealership sold about 300 cars monthly, and by 1998, it ranked 29th in Queensland’s Top 400 privately owned companies.
Henderson handed over the company to her son Peter Byrne in 1995.
Beyond business, she was a dedicated philanthropist, supporting women’s healthcare and education.
But she had an unsuccessful tilt at politics, failing as the Nationals candidate in the 1989 Merthyr state by-election which was triggered after the resignation of Don Lane in the wake of the Fitzgerald Inquiry.
She was honoured with the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Queensland Community Foundation Board of Governors in 2022 for her lifetime of giving.
Betty Byrne Henderson passed away in 2025, aged 93.
John Longhurst
Originally from Sydney, John Longhurst moved to the Gold Coast in 1974 and with his family changed the tourism sector.
An entrepreneur with a number of businesses behind him including the Pace Motor Mower and Pride Boats he is best remembered for building Dreamworld.
As his son Rodney described him, he was a man who had “big dreams and the unique ability to realise them.”
Longhurst always said the idea for the park came to him in a dream while on a flight between Hawaii and Japan.
He sold Dreamworld in 1989 for $200m and also Cairns Great Adventures cruises, to Bruce Jenkins.
A successful businessman, he bought and sold a variety of real estate including Logan Hyperdome for $200m in 1990. He later sold a 50 per cent shareholding to the Queensland Investment Corporation for $350m and they later took full ownership in 2013.
John Longhurst passed away in 2022, aged 89.
Joseph Saragossi
Born in the United States, Joseph Saragossi was five when his father died and he later started his working life as an electrician.
After serving in WWII he migrated to Brisbane and married Pearle James – whose family company started in 1917 when George James established G. James Glass Merchants in West End.
After his father-in-law died in 1958, Saragossi thought the glass business as a better long-term prospect for his children than electrical contracting.
During his tenure he moved the company from being a merchandiser to a wholesaler.
G James’s most significant diversification was into aluminium extrusion in 1982 which bought the company into competition with major suppliers Alcan, Comalco and Alcoa.
G James grew into a wholesale and retail glass, and manufactures and installs aluminium and glass products and under Saragossi it also handled a broad range of domestic, industrial and commercial buildings.
It has 20 branches around the country and an office in Singapore.
The G James Group of Companies remains family owned and has more than 2000 employees.
Joseph Saragossi, passed away in 2005, aged 84.
Jim Kennedy
Businessman and chartered accountant Jim Kennedy was particularly well-known for his significant contributions to the Australian business and tourism sectors.
Throughout his career, Kennedy held positions on numerous company boards, including those of Qantas, the Commonwealth Bank, Suncorp, Santos Limited, Pacific Dunlop, and GWA Group.
He also holds the distinction of being the longest-serving director of the Australian Stock Exchange.
He founded the Queensland Investment Corporation, and the Queensland Tourist and Travel Corporation,
Beyond his corporate roles, Kennedy conducted several government inquiries, such as the one that prompted the closure of Boggo Road Gaol.
After serving on the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Department of Post and Telegraph in 1973, he was appointed as the foundation chairman of the Australian Postal Commission in 1975.
Kennedy owned several island resorts during his lifetime, including properties on Daydream Island, South Molle Island, and Tangalooma.
Kennedy was named a Queensland Great in 2006 and was inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 2009.
Jim Kennedy passed away in 2021, aged 87.
Sir Bruce Watson
A distinguished figure associated with The University of Queensland community, Sir Bruce also had a significant career in industry.
After graduating in Electrical Engineering from UQ in 1949, he worked in the Tasmanian power industry.
He later moved to Townsville and moved north to MIM Holding’s Copper Refineries in Townsville.
He then moved into the coal operations of MIM at Mt Isa and the Agnew nickel mine in Western Australia.
Sir Bruce rose through the ranks at MIM Holdings, becoming managing director in 1980 and chief executive in 1981, and chairman in 1983.
He remained involved with UQ, serving as a senator from 1990 to 1992.
After retiring, he was elected to the King’s College Council in 1995 and served as President from 1996 to 2000.
During his presidency, the college expanded, including the completion of a new residential building in 1998, for which he was personally involved in the Capital Appeal.
In his retirement, Sir Bruce was also involved in philanthropy and community service, serving as Chairman of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research where he helped raise substantial funds.
He was a member of the Brisbane Lions Club for 51 years and involved with the Scout Association of Australia and the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation.
Sir Bruce passed away in 2008, aged 80.
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