Getting to know you! with Colin Burke

Gladstone News Content Creator Em caught up with local identity Colin Burke for a coffee and to find out more about who he is and where he comes from. Here are 10 things we didn’t know about the council candidate.  

1. I was born and was raised in a very small village on the Broken Hill railway line called Euabalong West in far western NSW. It was a railway fettlers village and the primary school had about 20 children for the 5 years that I went to school. 

2. I completed my secondary schooling at a government boarding school for children from remote areas, Yanco Agricultural High School near Leeton in NSW. It gave me a great rural perspective and was a very strong Rugby League school which led me to play league until I was about 32.

3. My working career started in the Court System in the NSW Dept of Petty Sessions and then joined a County Council in Administration and later as Chief Purchasing Officer for 14 years until I started my own business. 

4. I can play the Saxophone and have sung in a choir. I currently take guitar lessons with the lads from Willy Eds inToolooaStreet – they tell me they will get me to a one-man show level, lookout Gladstone!!!! 

5. I started my business in Gladstone andTannumSands in 2000 and have been in business here for the last 18 years at Elders Real Estate. 

6. I have been heavily involved in our local community and have been a past Chairman of GAPDL and spent many years on the Salvation Army Red Shield Committee. I have also been a member of Rotary for around 15 years and am a Past President and Paul Harris Fellow with the Gladstone Port Curtis Rotary Club.

7.  The Relay for Life and the Cancer Council have a large place in my heart as I have been touched by cancer twice now (and now clear) and the Cancer Council people have been wonderful. They are a great support to many in our community.

8. I was a compare with Ranger Tim from Totally Wild for a Burlesque night to raise funds for Prostate Cancer at the PCYC. That night culminated in Ranger Tim and I dancing with a burlesque dancer and a python without many clothes on! The event raised around $10 000 for the night. 

9. Myself and a team organised and funded what turned out to be Australia’s largest mammal transfer. Tina from Safe Haven needed a hand to transfer all her endangered species Bridle Nail Tailed Wallabies and all of her Wombats from Marlborough to Mount Larcom. We arranged air-conditioned vans and went to Marlborough the night before to build cages and help catch the Wallabies, and then very early next morning started the transfer – my staff took shifts to be drivers and we did it all in one day without losing a single animal life. 

10. I have a strong passion for the community and firmly believe that you get out of life what you give. I pride myself on being loyal and trustworthy, and I look forward to serving our community into the future.