Tony Pasin (Barker, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like many in the Limestone Coast community, I was shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the untimely passing of Adrian de Bruin AM on Saturday, 16 July. Adrian was a friend and a person I often turned to for wise counsel. He was a man who was respected and listened to by both sides of the political divide, and whose advice was always worth considering.

Adrian immigrated from Holland to South Australia as a nine-year-old, and his entrepreneurial vision and astute business acumen made him a highly successful businessman. Adrian contributed to the Limestone Coast community by taking risks—investing in building successful businesses from the ground up. He forged his own highly successful career in forestry over many decades, before branching out to focus on a variety of business pursuits including Wagyu beef production. Adrian was amongst the first Australians to recognise the significance of the Wagyu breed and imported 25 full-blood Wagyu to his Mayura Station in the Limestone Coast. Today, the Mayura Wagyu herd numbers 6,000—one of the largest full-blood Wagyu enterprises anywhere in the world.

Adrian chose to remain in Mount Gambier, where he has been since arriving in Australia from Holland as a nine-year-old in 1955. Adrian grew his business, South East Afforestation Services, and later Auspine, from one employee in 1978 to hundreds of people over 30 years before the acquisition of Auspine by Gunns. He saw the potential to improve with a focus on driving greater productivity, and his company quadrupled production rates over his tenure. By 2007 the company Adrian headed was regarded as one of the nation's biggest softwood timber companies and, through value-adding and innovation, employed some 1,200 people.

The acquisition of Auspine by Gunns allowed him to invest in a series of other businesses, boosting the regional economy. The de Bruin Group, established in 2008, included a series of businesses involving engineering and machining services, property construction and development, aviation maintenance, travel and tourism. Adrian strengthened the wider Limestone Coast economy as well as providing financial security for many local families. His contribution was recognised in this year's Queen's Birthday honours, when he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for significant services to business, particularly to the timber and forestry sector, the beef cattle industry and regional development. His legacy of hard work, prudent risk-taking and commitment to investing his wealth into the community will endure for a very long time.

My family and I wish to extend our sympathies to his beautiful wife, Joanne, and his amazing children, Amanda, Joanne, Scott and Alice, as well as to the extended de Bruin family. Adrian will be remembered not only as a giant of the timber industry but, more than that, as one of our nation's great entrepreneurs. In my maiden speech, I said that migrants come to this country not for deliverance but to deliver. Adrian de Bruin delivered.