PROMINENT Mount Gambier businessman Adrian de Bruin has died while walking around the Blue Lake. Source: AdelaideNow
Mr de Bruin, 70, who was one of the State’s wealthiest people, was recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia for significant service to business and regional development just last month.
At the time he said it was a “nice recognition to get for my hard work in the forestry industry”.
Mr de Bruin sold his thriving Southeast timber business Auspine to Tasmanian forestry giant Gunns in 2007. He had spent his life building the business that included 46,000ha of freehold land, and 40,000ha of forests in the Southeast and Western Victoria.
Mr de Bruin still lived in Mt Gambier where he had been since arriving in Australia from Holland as a nine year old boy in 1955.
Mr de Bruin grew his business South East Afforestation Services from one employee in 1978 to hundreds of people over 30 years before selling up.
This allowed him to invest in a series of other businesses, boosting the regional economy.
The de Bruin Group, established in 2008, includes a series of businesses involved in engineering and machining services; property construction and development; aviation maintenance; and travel and tourism.
Foremost among them is Mayura Station at Millicent, one of Australia’s largest full-blood Wagyu beef cattle holdings carrying more than 6000 cattle, which he established in 1998.
