Midfield Meats boss Colin McKenna has passed away after a short illness

Tributes are flowing for respected Victorian meat processing giant, businessman and racing enthusiast Colin McKenna who has died after a short illness.

Southwest Victorian meat processing pioneer Colin McKenna has passed away.

Country Victorians and the nation’s agriculture and racing industries are mourning the passing of meat processing giant and “true community man” Colin McKenna who died, aged 74, after a short illness.

Warrnambool-based McKenna family’s The Midfield Group announced the death of the businessman and community leader on Sunday, saying the “founder and mentor to many” had passed away with his family by his side.

A flood of tributes from political and business figures followed. But more tellingly, so has an an outpouring of grief, and appreciation, from everyday people and his workers across Victoria’s south west, who remember how he built not only a business, but a community with it.

Mr McKenna was the son of soldier settlers - and that work ethic and community spirit learnt on that 78ha block informed how he lived and worked.

He first worked as a shearer then stock agent before buying the Warrnambool municipality abattoir in 1988. Midfield Meats grew to one of Australia’s most successful family-owned businesses, directly employing 1500 people, and with 8000 hectares of rich farmland, part of The Union dairy and beef properties.

Keys to his success were his ability to bring out the best in staff, encouraging them as respected equals; and developing a wide range of export markets, not just the top end, believing “not everybody can afford to eat an eye fillet and have a glass of champagne every night”. And, by respecting the livestock.

As one businessman he worked with, Anthony Boyle, puts it, Mr McKenna would always say “it is not about you or me, it is about the jobs; to have a successful business you have to promote growth in your community”.

As a 22 year old running two trucks Mr Boyle approached the meat baron at the Warrnambool saleyards and asked “any chance you’d give a young bloke a go”.

“I met with him and he shook my hand and said ‘you will go alright, you will be fine’,” Mr Boyle says, who went on to grow Boyle’s Livestock Transport fleet to 23 trucks.

“And not just people who worked with him, but when a bloke like McKenna says ‘you will be alright and you should have a go’, you then believe you can do it.”

“The biggest lesson I learnt from him was mutual respect, yourself and your staff.

“He would say ‘you’re only as good as your staff’ and that stuck with me.

“A lot of people don’t know half of what he has done in philanthropic efforts, but it is all the families he donated to that nobody will ever know about, he was very modest.

“It is one thing to be successful but it’s another to give so much to your community.”

In an interview with The Weekly Times, Mr McKenna said growth was not the goal: “that doesn’t make me tick, I just think it is nice to be able to pay the wages every week, employ some people so they’ve got jobs and can enjoy a good livelihood”.

Former Victorian Farmers Federation livestock president and Mallee farmer Leonard Vallance remembered a “pioneer who turned the Victorian abattoir industry around with professionalism”.

“To be a survivor in that business you have to a be a pretty strong personality but with that strength he was an honest person,” he said.

An innovator in exporting, and as an advocate for animal welfare, Midfields were the first to install live footage, screened into the administrative office from the kill floor.

Wannon MP Dan Tehan said Mr McKenna was “tough, kind and compassionate” who put back into his local community like no other.”

Colin McKenna on his dairy farm. Picture: Zoe Phillips