Ken O’Dowd 10 Years Servicing Flynn

10 years ago, I never predicted I would enter politics. I was born in Gladstone Hospital in 1950 and grew up on my parents’ Mount Larcom farm. At a young age, I started growing small crops of beans, peas, peanuts and grain along with my brother and sisters to help support my parent’s dairy income on 3 x 80-acre blocks.

My parents worked hard to provide for their children, and as kids my brother, Bob, and sisters, Lorraine, Bernice and Maureen, and I worked on the farm before and after school. I went to Bracewell State School (now closed in 2000) until year 10, before attending Rockhampton Grammar School, where I became school captain.