The Longhurst family was inducted into the 2024 Queensland Business Leaders Hall of Fame at the 15th annual Awards Ceremony held in Brisbane 25 July.
Tourism, property and boating entrepreneurs, the Longhurst Family have a proud history of pioneering and innovation spanning over 50 years.
Brothers Tony and Rodney Longhurst accepted the accolade on behalf of their family.
Tony is a former racing car driver, two-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, and former Australian water skier champion, is CEO of The Boat Works at Coomera, the world-class boat yard and marina on the Coomera River.
Rodney is the owner of Riviera, Australia’s premium luxury motor yacht builder who builds around 150 yachts for the global market each year. Rivera operate a state-of-the art facility that is the largest luxury yacht building facility in the southern hemisphere and is located adjacent to The Boat Works.
Together, The Boat Works and Riviera own almost 40 hectares of prime riverfront land along the Coomera River, not far from Dreamworld, where their family began their history of investment in the Gold Coast.
From a young age, Tony and Rodney and their four siblings were taught that “if you believe in yourself, you can do anything”. Their father, the late John Longhurst, who passed away in 2022, was an Australian business pioneer, visionary and tourism legend and is remembered as a “man who had big dreams and the unique ability to realise them”.
John Longhurst had an impressive business career, beginning with his first business, Pace Mowers that he sold to lawn mower giant, Victa. He worked as a truck driver, mechanic, builder and boat manufacturer before buying 85 hectares of land in “the middle of nowhere”, as Tony describes it, just off the Pacific Motorway at Coomera, with the dream of building a theme park inspired by his trips to Disneyland.
“There was nothing but cow paddocks at Coomera,” says Tony, who worked on the tools to help transform the scrubby fields into what is the most awarded theme park in Australia.
“For many years, I worked every day with no time off – not even Christmas Day,” says Tony. “That was the work ethic we were expected to apply to getting the job done.”
In 1981, Dreamworld opened with instant success and eight years on, the park was welcoming more than one million visitors a year. In 1987, John purchased Green Island and Fitzroy Island on the Great Barrier Reef and a port in Cairns and launched Great Adventures, to ferry tourists to the outer reef.
Not long after selling Dreamworld and Great Adventures in 1989, he bought Logan Hyperdome shopping centre with the foresight the area would become an important corridor of growth. John’s entrepreneurial spirit lives on through his sons Tony and Rodney.
Rodney described his father as “a builder, a creator and a doer”.
“He was a super hard worker,” he says. “Dad’s father was an upholsterer, and he taught him that if you believe in yourself, you can do anything. That’s what he drummed into all of us.
“Our father was a manufacturer, a marketer, but his greatest love was looking at anything and thinking, ‘I can make that better; I can make that different.
“Everything was about how you give people or your customers a better experience. He had that absolute belief that anything could be done.”
Tony said his father was never short of inspiration. “Dad’s attitude and our family’s attitude was, ‘Yep, we’re doing this, let’s get stuck in’.
“To be truly self-made, to build lawn mowers, to build pleasure boats, and then bring Dreamworld to life and turn it from nothing into a $160 million business in a decade – it was amazing to be a part of that journey and experience.
“Our father was certainly a remarkable man.”
Today, Riviera and The Boat Works have over 2,000 people on site at their Coomera facilities and there would be a further 1,000 or more staff, contractors and suppliers that are indirectly involved with the two businesses who work either within the Gold Coast Marine Precinct or who are based elsewhere.
“The Boat Works carries the DNA of Dreamworld,” Tony states. “The ‘can do’ attitude, and the ambition that we are creating something much bigger than all of us – something that will create jobs, attract tourism and visitors to our shores.”
In the lead up to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games, which traditionally attract large numbers of international superyachts to a host region, The Boat Works is well prepared for an influx of vessels.
At 55-acres, The Boat Works is the largest marina, boatyard, and superyacht yard in the Southern Hemisphere and a thriving community, with three dining venues, landscaped gardens and Garage 25 Car Museum. Serviced by six specialist travelifts, including the city’s largest at 300-tonnes, the purpose-built Superyacht Refit Yard and Boatyard accommodates over 500 berths in and out of water.
With the world looking to Australia and the Olympics in 2032, Riviera is also well positioned to take advantage of this spotlight and opportunity. Building one of the world’s finest fleets of luxury motor yachts from 39 to 78 feet, this proudly Australian manufacturer exports around 60 percent of its annual production each year to the US, Europe and Asia.
Riviera is today training over 150 of the next generation of master boat builders at the company’s inhouse Academy of Excellence centre.
“Riviera and The Boat Works are testament to the Longhurst legacy,” says Tony. “We are dedicated to keeping the tradition of building alive – building boats, building infrastructure and creating jobs. I know our father would be proud of us.”
The Business Leaders Hall of Fame was established in 2009 and is a partnership between QUT and the State Library of Queensland.
It recognises outstanding Queensland business leaders for their public contribution to the state’s reputation, and economic and social development.
John Longhurst started Pace Mowers in 1954 in the garage of his suburban home.
John’s entrepreneurial drive expanded into boat building where he developed Pride boats after witnessing the surge of private boating in the American market and the switch from wood to fibreglass hulls.
In 1959 John (pictured below) continued his journey of innovation and turned his attention to building houses, establishing Pride Homes which were marketed as affordable homes for newlyweds, ex-servicemen and migrants.
The Hon. R.J. Hawke, Prime Minister, John Longhurst and The Hon. John Brown, Minister for Sport, Recreation and Tourism.
John on the famous Thunderbolt rollercoaster.
True inspiration struck John during a flight between Hawaii and Japan, after visiting Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm, leading him to conceive what would become Dreamworld.
Rodney
Tony
Owner and Chairman of Riviera Rodney Longhurst with CEO Wes Moxey.
Tony Longhurst at The Boat Works yard that sits alongside the Riviera facility on the Coomera River.
