March 27, 2025
Kingaroy businesspeople Daniel and Mary Huskisson hosted the Kingaroy Chamber of Commerce & Industry’s March meet’n’greet on Tuesday night at their Utopia Café in Kingaroy Street.
Daniel introduced the crowd to the various businesses the couple own – and have started up – in recent years.
They have been running Utopia successfully for eight years but had less luck with their plans for Husky’s Burgers in the IGA complex in Avoca Street.
The last time they hosted a KCCI meet’n’greet was five years ago when Husky’s was opening.
Unfortunately, the hamburger business opened just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck.
The lockdowns and uncertainty proved devastating for many hospitality businesses, including Husky’s.
Likewise, an ice cream shop the couple started in Kingaroy Shoppingworld also didn’t take off, and both businesses were forced to close.
But that hasn’t stopped Daniel and Mary’s entrepreneurial spirit.
Daniel shared his business vision with the audience: “If you have growth, you have chaos. If you have no growth, you have stability”.
He said the Utopia Café was now on the market to allow the pair concentrate on their other businesses: Proclean Property Maintenance and SB Pest Control.
These two businesses are booming and taking up a lot of time. They were no doing 100 yards and 100 cleans a week.
Daniel has also just started a new business in partnership with Nathan Hendy, SB Transfer and Hire, which aims to fill a gap in the local market in regards to transport for medical appointments.
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Also, at the meet’n’greet:
- Nicola Pitt spoke about the upcoming South Burnett Training Awards, urging businesses to nominate their employees. Nominations can be made online and tickets to attend the awards night dinner in Murgon can also be booked online
- Kingaroy Men’s Shed president Eric Ford spoke about the recent Dinner Under The Stars and thanked local businesses for supporting the group’s fundraising efforts for the LifeFlight Foundation
- A golf day to raise funds for the South Burnett Relay For Life campaign will be held at the Kingaroy Golf Course on April 26. More information is available from Rowena Dionysius on 0418-922-572
- TAFE and Golden West Apprenticeships are looking for letters of support from South Burnett businesses to back an application for a Skilling Queenslanders For Work Project being sought in conjunction with South Burnett Regional Council
I’d just like to say what a wonderful idea it is that Daniel has had!
No Doctors want to come to Kingaroy. I ask every 6 months at the two practices and get the same result…no, sorry books still closed, no one wants to come here, so I continue to drive to Toowoomba twice a year to get vital tests.
The sad thing is many of us do. It’s either there or Caboolture. In fact now, the practice I visit has had to *close books* due to so many from out of town, because we cannot get local doctors.
Which is why I laughed at the Budget speech: “any Australian will be able to walk into a doctor’s at any time and get free treatment”.
That’s ok if you live in the city, but what if there are NO docs? It wouldn’t matter if they were free or charged $1000 if you CAN’T GET one.
You can 10 times increase the bulk-billing rate, it still won’t make docs come to the country.
Perhaps they should look into giving young docs an *L* plate on their qualifications UNLESS they serve at least two years at a country town. Then, and only then, they would get their full certificate.
As to “new urgent care clinics”, certainly NOT here … no, again in the city where a GP is merely 10 minutes away, not a 5-hour round trip.
Anyhow, back to the crux of the above story…
A local charity does medical transport and they cannot keep up because they cannot get volunteer drivers, the demand is just so high, and their drivers are older so want to retire anyway, can’t blame them.
By starting a transport business for patients forced to go to large cities for a GP, this would be marvellous!
Not everyone has a “handy friend or relative” to drive them, which is what most doctors think. Many live alone, or their family is in another town or State. And their friends? They are also elderly and in the same boat!
News Desk… PLEASE follow up on this much-needed service because I can see myself using it in the near future.