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38 100 MOST INFLUENTIAL TRANSPORTHORRIEMILLERBy the time 24-year-old Horrie Miller wasfighting the Germans in the skies aboveFrance in 1917, his path in life was clear.Four years earlier, as soon as he was oldenough, the young man had travelled to theUnited Kingdom with a dream to fly. He hadjoined Sopwith Aviation Works as amechanic, where he learnt to fly. World WarI gave him his first proper taste of life as apilot.But it was after the war he would make aname for himself. In 1928, he andconfectionery magnate MacphersonRobertson bought three new planes andemployed two pilots — giving rise to theMacRobertson-Miller Aviation Company.Airman: Horrie Miller, right.The first service would fly in 1934, afterMMA won the Perth to Daly Waters servicefrom Norman Brearley’s West AustralianAirways.MMA would grow to have air routes thatspanned the country until 1969 when it wasfinally bought by Ansett. Ansett wouldremain one of the nation’s main domesticairline carriers until it folded in 2001.HERBERT JOHNWIGMOREThe Wigmore name is one many WestAustralians will not have thought about formany years.Once a tremendously wealthy but muchundervalued listed company, Wigmores hadat various stages been the WA agent forCaterpillar Tractors, Holt and Best, JohnDeere and Ford tractors.Then in 1983 Wigmores was purchased bythe Bell Group — the company Alan Bondwould take over in notorious circumstancesin 1988 in a bid to get his hands on the BellResources cash-cow that he hoped wouldsave his financial bacon.The following year, Wigmores would losethe Caterpillar agency to Morgan Equipment— a company that would soon after bepurchased by Kerry Stokes.None of this high-level wheeling andSTANQUINLIVANdealing would have been envisaged byHerbert Wigmore, the man who leant thecompany his name for almost a century —having established himself as a chaff andgrain merchant in Fremantle in the 1890s.It became a public company in 1938 andWigmores would for decades be a familiarname, particularly in the agricultural sector,through its various dealerships.JOHNHUGHESJohn Hughes is an icon of the WA automotiveindustry who has built his vast empire ofdealerships from scratch.At the age of 32 he was freshly married,had just taken out a mortgage on a houseand was working as the general manager of acar yard. Then one morning he took the kindof chance that can make or break a man: hebought a plot of land in Victoria Park andopened his own car yard.Fast forward 45 years and his businesses —car dealerships, as well as side-line insuranceand finance companies that capitalise onflow-on business — are testament to that firstpurchase being the right decision. AndHughes is worth somewhere in the order of$300 million, according to WA’s Rich list2013.Hughes also owns vast tracts of land,including half a disused golf course inWelshpool, and invests in a number ofproperties, including Australia Place, with asyndicate including John Bond.He and his wife Margarita are regulars atPerth’s most prestigious social and charitableevents.Stan Quinlivan’s business interests criss-crossthe State. Literally.He owes his fortune — valued at $290million in the WA’s Rich List 2013 — to hisaviation and trucking business, SkippersAviation and Skippers Transport.His trucks have been a familiar sight onWA roads for decades and his aviationbusiness is now booming, thanks in part tothe State’s enduring mining boom. MrQuinlivan’s entrepreneurial efforts helpunderpin the State’s success.Skippers Aviation has 29 regionalturboprops that operate regular transportflights as well as fly-in, fly-out charters.The airline has also taken delivery of two98-seat Fokker 100 jets which should enterservice soon after and will be the pride of afleet worth more than $135 million. Theairline holds the contract to serve the inlandtowns of Meekatharra, Wiluna, Laverton,Leinster, Leonora and Mt Magnet and it alsoserves Kalbarri, Carnarvon and Monkey Miawithout government subsidy. Quinlivan likesto fly under the publicity radar where hecan, but is well-known for his long battle todevelop the Ocean Beach Hotel in Cottesloe.Friday, November 29, 2013