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

I rise to pay tribute to a great figure within the Limestone Coast community. Les McDonnell was born into a timber family in 1928. His father, Newman, hauled hardwood logs out of the Grampians in Victoria during the Great Depression. It was a bushfire at Mount Burr in South Australia that saw the family move to the Limestone Coast region as part of a team that set up falling, hauling and sawmilling operations to extract and mill burnt timber following the bushfire. It was the beginning of NF McDonnell & Sons, formally established in 1946. Les and his brother, Don, were very much hands-on in driving log trucks and felling trees. He could drive anything from a motorcycle to a semitrailer to a grader to a bulldozer. These were skills that proved very useful as the business expanded into log haulage, sawmilling, farming and freight transport. After establishing mills in Mount Burr, Millicent and Kalangadoo, in 1956 the operation moved to its present premises in Sutton Town, Mt Gambier in South Australia.

Les, like his father before him, was an innovator. Prior to the introduction of forwarders and tired of the virtually impossible task of keeping the old crane-type log trucks up to legal roadworthiness, he adapted an old Mack truck with a front end loader. The logs were held in place on the trailer by large pins similar to what is used today. During the 1950s and the 1960s, NF McDonnell & Sons became the first to introduce mechanisation into the timber-felling industry in the south-east of South Australia, purchasing a timberjack skidder. Early in the 1960s, Les and the company became the first to introduce a forwarder to government forests in the district. Les was always keen to introduce innovative machinery, and this played a significant role in the success of the company.

Les was a leader in the business community also. President of the South Eastern Log Hauliers Association for many years, Les was instrumental in getting logging contractors to join an independent insurance pool which operates to this day. Following the disastrous Ash Wednesday bushfires, a business opportunity presented itself, and Les and the company took a gamble and became the first Australian company to export woodchips to Japan. This operation began in 1984 and still continues today. NF McDonnell & Sons were leaders in their own right and were the first logging operators to introduce B-doubles in the logging industry.

It has been said that Les was the last of the original timbermen in the Green Triangle. He was a stalwart in his community, contributing to the Lions club and others. He will be greatly missed. Vale, Les McDonnell, one of the last original timbermen.