Ken Cody has called Moranbah home since 1978, arriving in town just a few years after the mining community was established. “Moranbah was a relatively quiet town where we knew just about everybody. A young community where we had to support each other,” he recalls.
It’s a sentiment that’s followed him through more than four decades of local business. After working at Peak Downs mine, Ken started Moranbah Engineering in 1981. A decade later, he took on the Enzed franchise.
“I bought the Enzed franchise in 1991 as a good supplement to the work we were already doing in the area,” said Ken.
Back then, the town was tight-knit and still taking shape. Over the years, Ken’s watched the landscape, and the mining industry evolve.
“Businesses and locals have had to adapt as best they can. In business here, it’s about striving to offer local services and remain competitive against businesses that are based away from Moranbah.”
Adaptability became the hallmark of Ken’s operation.
“I’m proud of our ability to adapt to any service that was asked of us,” he said, listing everything from “making a set of rear wheels for a handicapped dog, to working on kids’ bikes and go-karts, speedway cars and dragsters, farming harvesters, draglines and dozers, underground mining equipment, and being there for the construction of new mines in the area”.
Now, at 78, he’s officially stepped away from the business world ready to hand things over to the younger generation. Dave and Jessica Jones from Hoses 24 are the next to carry it forward.
“It’s great to see a young and enthusiastic family like Dave and Jess taking their business to the next level. They’re great people and I wish them all the best.”
Looking back, Ken says being a business owner has shaped far more than his career.
“We’ve made many lifelong friendships. Our children stayed friends with our friends’ children, and now even the grandchildren, that community feel stays forever.”
It’s those personal connections that have made the biggest mark, even among the wildlife.
“We’ve always had workshop ‘pets’ hanging around, from cats, dogs, chickens, possums and more recently magpies. At the recent retirement celebration that Dave and Jess put on, the magpies must have seen me arrive because two of them flew in and were waiting not very patiently for their daily fix of raw mince!”
That sense of familiarity, of being known and needed and enjoying a lifestyle away from the hustle and bustle of the larger communities and cities is what’s kept Ken in Moranbah all these years.
His advice to anyone starting a business in a mining town like this?
“Make sure you have the ability to adapt, be resilient, and hold yourself to the highest integrity.”
Now retired, Ken is looking forward to more time with family and catching up with old mates. But if the magpies have their way, he might still find himself pulled back to the workshop, if only to deliver the mince!
