It was the Darling Downs flour empire built by a widowed mother of ten that just kept on rising.
Ellen O'Brien and Defiance Flour - the fledgling Toowoomba business she turned into a household name that remains on supermarket shelves - have been inducted into the 2015 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame.
Now in its seventh year, the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame is a joint initiative between QUT Business School, State Library of Queensland and the Queensland Library Foundation. It celebrates those organisations and individuals who have enhanced the state's reputation and economy.
Ellen O'Brien and Defiance Flour and five other Queensland business leaders from past and present were inducted into the Hall of Fame by The Honourable Quentin Bryce AD CVO during a black-tie gala event at the Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre last night (THURSDAY JULY 30).
Mrs O'Brien and husband Patrick were Irish migrants who came to Toowoomba and established a grocery store before setting up a flour mill in 1898. Showing their characteristic boldness, the couple named the mill Defiance, in defiance of the rival Dominion Mill.
Mr O'Brien died in 1906, leaving his 48-year-old wife with 10 children between the ages of four and 22 and a flourishing mill to run. A staunch Catholic with an astute business brain, Mrs O'Brien's leadership saw the mill thrive, until she passed the reins on to her son, Thomas Patrick (T.P.), at the end of World War I.
Defiance grew rapidly from the 1960s, spreading across Australia and then internationally, as a result of the entrepreneurial enthusiasm of brothers Pat, Bill and Tom O'Brien and world-leading baking innovation that led to a shrewd deal to become sole supplier to Coles and Woolworths.
Despite its expansion, Defiance remained intrinsically linked to Toowoomba, at one point directly employing 500 in the city when its population was 50,000.
The company survived drought, high wheat prices, strong competition and the complexity of a large family shareholding before a takeover in 1997 - one year short of its century.
Ellen Morosini, the great-granddaughter of Ellen and Patrick, said her great-grandmother's Catholic faith, strong work ethic and business acumen had ensured Defiance's success.
"Ellen coped when Patrick died because she knew the business inside out, she was a true partner in it. And she was also the typical Irish woman - warm and hospitable but strong in character," she said.
"Ellen was an outstanding businesswoman and her funeral stopped Toowoomba. It was a huge funeral - the cortege went for two streets - and it was testament to the high regard the whole community held her in."
Patrick O'Brien, the great-grandson of Ellen and Patrick, said the family business had thrived on an early commitment to innovation.
"I think we were leaders in innovation. At one stage our Toowoomba mill, per foot of roller mill space, had the highest capacity of flour of any mill in the world, and it was mainly due to the machinery we'd invented," he said.
QUT Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Little said Ellen O'Brien and Defiance Flour had made an immeasurable contribution to the Toowoomba economy.
"Both were pioneers and Ellen O'Brien's tenacity and commitment to growing the family business, while single-handedly raising a large family, was inspirational," he said.
"She and Patrick laid the groundwork for one of Queensland's longest-standing and successful family enterprises."
State Librarian Janette Wright said the Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame ensured the businesses and individuals who had played vital roles in the state's business landscape would be recognised and remembered.
The Hall of Fame space resides within State Library of Queensland, while the digital story collection is available online at www.halloffame.slq.qld.gov.au
The inductees into the 2015 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame are:
•Benjamin Wickham Macdonald
•Blue Care
•Ellen O'Brien and Defiance Flour
•Hyne Timber
•Sir Lawrence Wackett
•The Courier-Mail
TWITTER: Follow #qldhof
Media contact:
Rob Kidd, QUT Media, 07 3138 1841, rj.kidd@qut.edu.au
After hours, Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901
