Businessman Mick Davis has never forgotten the two people who gave him his first unsecured loan decades ago while he was living in a housing commission home in Inverell.
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Mr Davis thanked the late Jim Wright and Leah Armstrong from Yarnteen when he was on the national stage last week accepting an award that recognises his contribution to Australia.
Foreign Affairs minister Julie Bishop presented Mr Davis with the 2016 Indigenous in Business Award at the annual Ethnic Business Awards.
His company Warialda Engineering and Welding was born in a garage, more than 20 year ago.
It is now an internationally recognised family business that employs Mr Davis, his wife, Anita Mackay, daughter Tanaya, sons Tyrone and Simeon.
Mr Davis thanked his family and his second family, 18 employees. The award recognises the financial and social obstacles Mr Davis overcame to make his business such a success.
And it celebrated the ingenuity and creativeness shown in Mr Davis’s inventions.
His Davis Starlifter has come to the rescue of many a sore back and solved occupational health and safety issues around farming, woodcutting, fencing and also road works, bushfire recovery and clean-ups.
It’s invention is thanks to Brian “Bushy” Johnston, owner at the time of Inverell’s Motor Mecca.
Mr Davis was chainsawing fire wood, and looking for as much work as possible.
“If you could invent a way to lift logs off the ground, I’d buy it,’’ Bushy said.
Warialda Engineering and Welding has grown to become an industry leader, recognised for a range of products and services that include design, repair, metal fabrication and steel products for agricultural and related industries.
Sons Tyrone and Simeon, boilermakers by trade, were the youngest pressure ticket holders in Australia.
Mr Davis thanked his first major customer Mark Mason, CEO of Ceres Agricultural Company, who commissioned the business to build a feedlot from start to finish.
Mr Davis’ extraordinary talent for inventions greatly impressed the judges.
The Davis starlifter won Mr Davis the 1997 farm inventor of the year at Ag-Quip.
He has since added The Ropey, the bagmate, and the cable coil to the delight of farmers.
Mr Davis is a Torres Strait Islander who came to Inverell as a young child with his parents.
The awards will be on SBS1 at 3.3pm on Sunday November 13.
