Boating Passion

22 June 2010

A lifelong passion for boats sparked Brian and Margaret Baker’s decision to invest a significant chunk of their retirement savings in creating North East Business Park’s North Harbour.

The pair is among of small group of private investors who bought into the vision for North Harbour – a master planned community where recreational pursuits such as boating and golf can be enjoyed alongside industries that provide vital employment.

“I was drawn to the idea of being able to live, work and enjoy your recreation all in the one location,” Mr Baker said. 

“We’d seen developments like this in the USA, particularly in Florida, and they work extremely well.”

Originally from Adelaide, Brian Baker finished a distinguished business and engineering career as the President of Mobil in North America, overseeing the company’s merger with Exxon.

After retirement, he and his wife, Margaret, sailed their boat home from North America before settling in Mooloolaba.

“I’ve messed around with boats all my life and creating a marine precinct at Caboolture as part of whole community really captured my imagination,” he said.

Mr Baker said the North East Business Park site had the potential to offer a quality that many developments lack – a large amount of public open space.

“Part of the site is not suitable for development and can only be set aside as public open space but that contributes to the overall quality of the community.

“The river needs a lot of work but I believe Australians are drawn to the water…anything with a water vista is going to be a place where people want to live.”