VALE – PETER LEO HOARE

The CMPA wishes to acknowledge the passing of one of Victoria’s most charismatic contributors to the Quarry and Resource Industry in this state. Peter Hoare, taken from our midst at a far too early age.

Peter Leo Hoare (PLH)
Born 19th July 1942
Passed away 19th May 2011
Aged 68 years old

It is with great sadness that we report the passing of a good man, an inclusive man, a thinker, a worker and above all, a family man. Peter Hoare was another good man from an era of men who dreamed of something bigger and better while working at the coal face – and another who has unfortunately passed from our presence. The loss creates an emptiness that can never be readily filled. Peter Hoare was one of many born in better times where the dream to set up your own family business was possible.

PETER Leo Hoare was born 19th July 1942 to Bob and Dolly Hoare. Peter grew up locally in Geelong working as a tyre fitter when he first left school. It was not long before he decided to move on from this vocation and to go and help his father Bob, whom had started a local earthmoving firm in Geelong.

It was from these humble beginnings that Hoare Bros. was created and expanded to be one of the most respected Earthmoving Contractors in the Earthmoving and Quarry Industries throughout Australia (servicing clients from North Queensland to Tasmania and South Australia).

One of Peter’s greatest assets and legacies was his ability to make people feel at ease around him and it is something that this industry is losing. Peter was ever the innovator, forever extracting the most out of the basic everyday piece of machinery or refining the most sophisticated crushing process to help his customers and suppliers alike.

The innovations and continual improvement were accepted by all around him as part of Peter’s daily focus as he was never content with accepting what the manufacturer, the sales person or what the manual represented to be the limits. Regarding the performance of any piece of machinery or process his view was if you accepted the blurb it killed any incentive to improve it, with the result being that we become complacent, compliant and dull rather than challenged so as to create a career path built on improving existing technology and thus stay ahead of the game. The performance and the continued development of Hoare Bros under Peter’s watch has been achieved without fan fare.

All being accomplished by his complete and close attention to collective, collaborative and disciplined employee involvement which has transformed the company from basically a single focused plant hirer to a multi disciplined service company providing specialised production services in the fields of agricultural lime products, recycling services, port loading and unloading services and Quarry and Mine operations including full Crushing and Gold Mining operations. Coupled with the core heart of the companies hire service’s (providing the latest earthmoving to the Civil Construction and Quarry and Mining Industry), has made them a key supplier to the industry.

Another of Peter’s great assets and legacies was his field trained capacity in operational problem solving and in this field he will be sadly missed, however it is to be hoped that those students that have been nurtured by Peter’s disarming, approachable and informative manner will use this training in the future development of their own career’s and pass this valuable training asset on to those coming after them.

Hoare Bros typifies, and indeed is an example of what our organisation the CMPA represents, that is, relatively small, mostly family based businesses, often community centered and who by their particular enterprise provide vital infrastructure services inputs and employment to the nation which cannot efficiently be provided by public enterprise and thus if this great nation is to develop to its full potential the commitment of government at all levels should be directed to the support and continued development of these vital enterprises.

Family based businesses like Hoare Bros and many others don’t just exist for themselves in order to survive they must grow in a measured way by the continual attention to the encouragement of staff to achieve a career path which cannot alone be achieved by academic process but by operational experience and development which can only come from employers that commit themselves to that tutorial role, as was the case with Peter at Hoare Bros.

On the job training needs the attention and the support of government and not solely be left to private enterprises to engage in it as represented by this organisation, for it may all be very well for today’s learner operator to become tomorrow’s supervisor and stay all his or her working life at the same organisation as repayment for loyalty and of some comfort to a grateful employer yet it never the less short changes the education process to the wider industry and therefore thought must be given to overcome the current “restricted field training” opportunities available.

Our organisation offers its sincere condolences to Dianne and the Family in their great loss and joins the industry at large in acknowledging the valuable contribution Peter made to the betterment of the industry in his relatively short time among us and wishes Anthony, Matthew and the whole crew at Hoare Bros the good fortune to continue to take the Company forward in a similar way that Peter did so successfully from Bob his father during his time at the helm.

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