CLONCURRY Mayor Andrew Daniels said beef industry champion Zanda McDonald’s passion for technology and innovation had revolutionised the North West Queensland beef industry.
Cr Daniels' tribute follows the death of Mr McDonald, 41, in the Townsville Hospital last night. His death followed a fall from a windmill more than two weeks ago.
He said Mr McDonald was the first producer to employ helicopters through the region during the late 1980s, whereby stations were able to compete for the first time with the mines in attracting quality workers.
Cr Daniels told Queensland Country Life that many north west producers, including his own family, had “taken a leaf out of Zanda’s book,” and it had become common practice across the region for station workers to be trained in helicopter piloting in exchange for an agreed fixed term commitment to work at the property.
“Zanda’s idea gave everyone an incentive to be able to keep workers. He was always on the front foot in his thinking,” he said.
Cr Daniels said Mr McDonald and his family had been an active participant in the community, including being a major sponsor of the Cloncurry Stockman’s Challenge, widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest horse events.
He said the family were also huge supporters of the Cloncurry saleyards, putting through an estimated 50,000-60,000 head their local yards each year.
“The family’s support of the yards brought in massive incomes for this community infrastructure,” Cr Daniels said.
“Zanda and his wife Julie were frequent goers to events in the community. Only last year they dressed up for our inaugural Cloncurry ball.
"These are the memories and the photos which the whole community will now cherish.
“The family has seen generation after generation of great thinkers.
“Zanda’s grandfather was a monument to the beef industry. His father and uncle worked their entire lives to make the Cloncurry community as well as Queensland a better place.
"With Zanda and Alastair, the family could not have wished for a more capable set of hands to take over the business. The future looked so bright.”