On behalf of the Council and all King Islanders, Mayor Marcus Blackie congratulated the island’s longest-serving councillor, and former warden, David Bowden, who recently turned 80.
“An auspicious milestone, sir … we hope you had an appropriate celebration with friends and family,” Mr Blackie said in a council message.
“You continue to serve and are an inspiration to us all. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.”
David Bowden came to King Island as a teacher and, over several years, he worked as an agricultural contractor while establishing his farm at Reekara. He, and later with his son Andrew, cleared bush blocks and then joined them together. In many ways, David is a visionary.
After the collapse of the wool industry, he pivoted into dairy. He built the dairy with the help of his late wife, Jocelyn, and their children. As the dairy grew, David saw the need, and opportunity, for another string in King Island’s bow.
He thought that if there were somewhere to sell surplus milk, everyone would benefit. The startup was a UHT factory, and it was intended for farmers to grow their businesses by supplying surplus milk to become long-life products that could then be exported.
While the idea was innovative and there was a new emerging product and market, the then-owners of the cheese factory were not so enamoured by the idea, and it soon became a legal battlefield that ultimately stopped the development of a new island industry.
In an era when large farm irrigation relied on rainfall and paddock dams, David designed, and his son built, a 780 megalitre dam that gave the farm 1,000ML of water storage, which was used by the four irrigation circles that were installed.
Before his dairy closed, there were 1,100 milkers, which enabled his dairy to produce a third of the total island milk supply and half of the milk for the Christmas and Easter rush. David was the Warden of King Island for a number of years before the role of mayor was incorporated.
During that time, he was able to secure funding and support the substantial expansion of the hospital focussing on care+help and wider community wellbeing.
One of the larger projects attributed to David is that he was the driving force behind the building of the Currie breakwater, providing a safer harbour for all King Islanders.
David continues to be community-minded and is currently working on a sustainable solution to the island’s waste management. His current passion is research and evaluating new incineration technology.
He has brought experts to the island, and he genuinely believes that this technology will solve King Island’s waste management problems and meet its needs.
A teacher, husband, father, farmer, Warden, entrepreneur with a community focus, and a serving councillor, who on his 80th birthday continues to try to improve King Island’s future.