Freshly baked idea goes stale
19.07.2003
By: Tony Koch
THREE years ago, a marvellous concept was born to provide business opportunities for indigenous people living in remote communities.
This ``partnership'' deal was formed to include the Queensland Government, Aboriginal and Islander representatives and private enterprise, driven in large part by Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson and with the enthusiastic backing of Premier Peter Beattie.
The State Government ran prominent advertisements inviting participation, and one person who was attracted was David Bedgood.
This is the David Bedgood known to many Brisbane people as the outgoing rugby supporter (former Queensland and Australia representative), owner of Bedgood Bakeries at Paddington, and more recently Stradbroke Island, and retired general manager of Buttercup Bakeries.
He wanted to help. He didn't want payment, and thought he could contribute by helping establish bakeries in these communities, giving not only nutritional food to residents, but skills and job opportunities as well.
Overflowing with enthusiasm, he was referred to the State Government representative, Ian Mackie, who spoke to him, saw he was genuine and had a sound proposal, and passed him on to the Department of State Development.
Bedgood put forward the proposal that he and his baker son travel to the Cape and inspect several communities and report back on the viability of the business proposal.
That was organised after a couple of months and arrangements were made. The trip began badly with no car available when they arrived at Cairns airport, so they had to hire one themselves and set out on the drive.
Hopevale -- Pearson's home community -- was the first port of call, then across to Weipa, down to Aurukun, back to Cooktown, and a flight to Badu Island in the Torres Strait. They gave a week of their own time to the project, and Bedgood hand-wrote a report recommending that a pilot project be established at Hopevale.
He aimed for modest input: second-hand equipment which he would procure and have installed, a training project he would oversee and the use of an existing building that was just right -- an abandoned butchery which already had stainless-steel benches, hot and cold water, a coolroom, a counter, display cabinets and a back-up generator.
State Development officers came to Bedgood's home at Stradbroke Island and assisted him in writing his report, which was completed in November 2001.
It pointed out that his family had had 70 years of success in the baking business and outlined how Hopevale could support a business that sold some 2000 loaves of bread a week and turned over some $10,000. He estimated start-up costs at $15,000 and infrastructure of about $80,000 using the butchery.
His company, Cape Bake, would manage the purchase of the equipment and install it, and he would personally oversee initial training of staff. He said the bakery should be run on purely commercial lines -- run for profit -- so that people cared enough to ensure it worked efficiently every day.
State Development and Cape York Partnerships considered the report and Hopevale Council was provided with a copy and their input was sought.
Bedgood waited.
State Development then decided it had merit and, in true bureaucratic style, appointed a two-person ``consultancy'' team to investigate the project. Bedgood thought he had just done that. Pearson's crowd thought Bedgood had just done that. Hopevale Council was somewhat bewildered to hear that yet another ``assessment'' was to be made by another group of bakery experts.
Bedgood waited.
A highly qualified team comprising Maurie Gray and David Atterwell of O'Brien's Flour set out, early in 2002, and inspected the Hopevale proposal. They concluded, at a consultancy cost of $22,000, that it was indeed viable, and proposed that their organisation supply the materials and training. Their report differed in that they preferred a much more expensive type of equipment: new instead of second-hand.
Three options were proposed: the Genesis state-of-the-art computerised bakery where ``each bread, bun, bread roll dough we need to make is programmed into the unit'', costing about $200,000; the junior version Genesis 300 costing $160,000; or the smaller model costing $115,000.
By this time there was another problem: The Hopevale Council had allocated the former butchery to another project, so the building was no longer available.
Then the council decided it wanted the bakery to be incorporated in the existing general store -- and to operate in the same hours as did the store.
Bedgood waited.
State Development had to tackle this problem and quotes were sought for the new building. Nobody replied, so Cabinet had to meet to agree in this instance to waive the normal tendering requirements and appoint a builder to do it on a cost-plus basis.
On April 16, 2002, State Development head and executive director of Cape York Partnerships Unit Dr Jonathan West wrote to Hopevale Council asking what bakery the community wanted; what were the preferred hours of operation; ownership options; trainee preferences.
Bedgood waited.
Last week, the State Development Department confirmed it was ``keen'' about the project and it was about to go ahead, with some $300,000 allocated to cover the costs -- a far cry from the $80,000 it was to cost in the original Bedgood proposal.
David Bedgood came to see me. He dropped the files on my desk, said that after three years he was not interested in waiting any longer, or having any involvement with the project.
This man of principle had done everything asked of him -- had offered free of charge his own expertise and time, had come up with a viable and necessary project -- and, after three years of waiting, his patience had run out.
Who can blame him?
Tony Koch is a Courier-Mail assistant editor.
His column appears every Saturday
