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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-11-29 Daily Xml
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Booth, Mr D.G.

The Hon. R.L. BROKENSHIRE (15:34): I rise to place on the Hansard record my appreciation and, I can easily say, that of thousands and thousands of South Australians, Australians, and in fact international friends of the late Devron Gene Booth, who was born on 30 August 1941 and who passed away on 22 July 2017.

Devron was the very much loved husband of Lynne. They had an exemplary marriage and were a shining example of how to conduct a marriage. They were not only husband and wife but also, from my observations, the very best of friends. Devron was the cherished father of Stuart, Alison and Meredith whose spouses are Kylie, Paul and Warren. He also had the privilege of loving and adoring seven wonderful grandchildren.

As a friend of Devron, I watched him closely and was mentored by him over the years. He helped me in politics, attended functions to help me in the electorate of Mawson and was always prepared to contribute. He was someone I saw as a very special person and a strong contributor to South Australia. In fact, I first met Devron as a very young person when I went to their farm at Morphett Vale near the Emu Hotel where the doctor's surgery, the White House, Flaxmill Road, is now. They farmed right through to the now Onkaparinga city council war memorial with prime lambs, cropping and grapevines. They had a small fleet of LS Booth wine trucks, doing it the hard way.

They were well brought up by their family. Lindsay Booth Sr was a very diligent, hard worker. He demanded a fair bit from the three sons, but he was able to see them develop into wonderful businesspeople. Whilst they all had a different niche within agriculture and the transport industry, they were able to combine that with transport, with wine grape growing and also with other successes that I will come to in a moment.

It was amazing how Devron helped to build this family business. It was LS Booth Wine Transport for a very long time. In 2001, it changed. It is now Booth Transport but by 2001 when Devron sold the wine transport side of the business to Brian, they had 80 prime movers, 40 tankers and 40 trailers. Since then, it continued to grow through the family to the point that they now have 918 registrations with 230 trucks and 325 tankers. The Booth family now has a fourth generation of Booths working within that industry.

I personally observed that Devron had incredible business acumen. He could actually network better than most people I had seen, but he always had time for everybody he was involved with right through to the last days of his life. He had an opportunity in the few weeks before to come into the parliament. That was a very important day for me and for his family. He very much enjoyed that day and was still actively engaged in everything that was happening around him. Whilst he was extremely successful and built a strong business, he always had the capacity to look at other opportunities.

With his son, Stuart, he actually designed a collapsible air-operated safety ramp along the top of all the tankers you see travelling around Australia, which was an incredible invention that is patented throughout most of the world. That has also turned into an extremely successful business. Stuart today continues that business on behalf of his father's family and Stuart's own family. I know that will continue to be a successful business. We see Brian and his family continuing to build an even bigger and stronger transport network across Australia.

Whilst I really would have liked about 55 minutes to go right through Devron Booth's life, in five minutes I have given a snapshot of someone who contributed so strongly to South Australia and Australia, who was incredibly successful but was a humble person, a person who actually loved to talk and engage with all age groups. He could relate to his grandchildren right through to 80 and 90 year olds. He enjoyed his golf and sport. He was a very good time manager and ensured that he always had special time to put into his family, which he cherished so much. Whilst he definitely passed away way too young, he has left an enormous legacy and has been of huge benefit to the building of the economy and of the community in South Australia and Australia.

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