Out of Africa: Property tycoon meets his love match

Consolidated Properties boss Don O’Rorke has tied the knot four years after meeting his sweetheart on an African safari. SEE THE PHOTOS

Consolidated Properties boss Don O’Rorke and new wife Katie McMillan

IT was just four years ago when they first met on an African safari.

Now Consolidated Properties boss Don O’Rorke and new wife Katie McMillan are back in Africa on their honeymoon.

The romantic couple were married at Don’s home at Hampton Farm in Brookfield in front of 190 guests from around the world including their blended family of nine children.

City Beat caught up with the happy couple after they arrived in Cape Town for their two-week honeymoon. Don and Katie, who is a Cairns-based speech pathologist, say neither of them were looking at getting married again.

But it was that fateful trip to Africa four years ago that brought them together and to celebrate their union they are off to Shamwari Private Game Reserve.

Don O’Rorke and new wife Katie McMillan.

Don's wedding in Brisbane last month.

“It blue skies here so it’s happy days,” Don says.

An old school friend of Katie’s, Uniting Church minister Kent Crawford, conducted the service while Don’s former Brisbane Boys’ College headmaster, 95 year-old Graham Thomson, gave the reading.

The guest list reflected the couple’s strong family ties and Don’s friends made through Brisbane Boys’ College, work and his ski and surf interests as well as Katie’s friends in the medical field and from Sydney and Cairns.

Guests included Hutchies boss Scott Hutchinson, Toby Lewis from Marquette Properties, David Watson from Capital Transactions, Alton Abrahams from AsheMorgan, Lee Centra from CVS Lane Capital Partners, Gadens chairman Paul Spiro and Geoff Rodgers from Rowland.

Other guests were World Surf League general manager Andrew Stark, David Tarantini the owner of Lost Surfboards, neurosurgeon Dr Richard Laherty and ophthalmologist Dr Ian Reddie.

Lasting Legacy

The mining company founded by Australian mining executive Peter Lynch, who was killed in an aviation accident in 2017, has fulfilled the dream of achieving its first coal production in Indonesia.

Cokal chairman Domenic Martino says the first output of metallurgical coal had been achieved this week at the company’s Bumi Barito Mineral mine in Central Kalimantan Province.

“This is a major milestone for our company founded in 2009 by Peter Lynch and a tribute to his vision,” Martino says.

“Peter was incredibly proud of Cokal and worked tirelessly for its success.” He adds that metallurgical coal production was ramping-up, with 150,000 to 200,000 tonnes of saleable coal forecast by the end of this calendar year.

“Production will increase to 1.6m tonnes of saleable coal in 2023, before reaching capacity of 2m saleable coal in 2024,’’ he says.

As the founder and former chairman of Cokal, Lynch was the driving force behind the development of the company’s Indonesian project. A greatly respected mining engineer and executive, he was also managing director at Clive Palmer’s Waratah Coal and served as director of development at Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.

Lynch died in a tragic seaplane crash in Perth’s Swan River on Australia Day, 2017.

Peter Lynch

Poet on the Move

Poet Rupert McCall has a new gig as national brand ambassador for Sunshine Coast-based Go Transit Media Group and its partner Ads On Wheels.

Go Transit Media group sales director Kirrily Hirst says McCall’s broad popularity across Australia was an ideal fit for the business as it seeks to increase its market share in both metropolitan and regional markets. Go Transit is Australia’s largest privately owned transit media company.

“Our bus advertising footprint covers almost every region and town in Australia,” Hirst says. “Rupert will play an important role in giving our brand even greater corporate exposure across a number of national markets including the hundreds of events each year where he delivers his incredible poetry and recitals.”

Brisbane poet Rupert McCall

McCall says that while the new role might seem an unusual path for a poet to take, he is confident he can combine his current speaking commitments to the brand ambassador role. GoTransit Media Group was founded in late 2010 by media executives Rob Gamble and Rick Chapman, along with their long-term shareholder Australia’s Associated Media Investments.