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Wednesday, 14 September 2011
Page: 10063

Mr HARTSUYKER (Cowper) (13:45): I rise today to pay tribute to a small business man in my electorate who has served his community for 60 years. Colin Ball left school in 1951 at the age of 14 to learn the butchery trade in his father's shop at South West Rocks. Colin was taught all aspects of the business by local butcher and slaughterman Nelson Cooper. Colin's father, Charles, saw that the young man had some potential and put him to work on the family farm running a small abattoir to provide meat for the CP Ball butchery and milking the family's dairy cows.

In 1963 Charles opened a butchery in Gladstone, New South Wales, and appointed Colin as manager. The shop was very profitable and at its zenith had 137 customers on a delivery run around the lower Macleay Valley. During the major floods in the Macleay Valley in 1963, meat from the Ball butchery in South West Rocks was delivered by Army helicopter to the Kempsey hospital, Kempsey town, Gladstone and Smithtown. In 1974 Colin opened a butchery in Kempsey. He also managed the family farm and abattoir.

The Ball butchery shops in Kempsey and South West Rocks are still going strong. On the October long weekend it will be 60 years since Colin Ball first started working in his father's shop in South West Rocks. A career of 60 years in the same industry, in the same business and in the same community is certainly a significant achievement. It gives me great pleasure to congratulate Colin on his achievement. I sincerely hope he will enjoy many more years servicing the Macleay Valley.