ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

The business brought the curse of the internet to Australia and the investment that springboarded Malcolm Turnbull from Bond Street to Mayfair still lives on in the hearts and minds of those who think the online world is just a fad.

One of them lives locally in Betoota Grove, but owns a warehouse and a business in the Flightpath District.

For over 40 years, Dale Kennedy has run ABC Milling.

ABC Milling does exactly what it says, it mills things. Whether it be wood, steel or ivory. If you need something milled, take it to Dale and he can mill it for you.

ABC Milling doesn’t have a website – but it has a fax machine. The printer under Dale’s desk is a Lexmark inkjet in from 2003. Every tax return he files is done by hand, same as every quarterly BAS statement.

His wife, Angela, does the computer stuff. From next year, she’ll have to start submitting the staff PAYG summaries at the end of each fortnight. A massive inconvenience but cross the thigh-necked pigs in Parliament House, you’ll get chopped, she says.

But Dale and Angela have made one concession in their ongoing war with the new world.

In 1997, just a few days after the world lost Princess Diana, ABC Milling got connected to the internet.

Another mention being their reluctant switch to ADSL but the sell became easy when Dale learned you could email and talk on the phone at the same time.

“Blew my mind,” he said.

But that’s been it.

The Packard Bell eOne in the corner of the office is still running; it screams like overloaded Proton Jumbuck heading uphill when the breathless Intel Celeron inside it is coaxed into booting Windows ME.

“We’ve still got the same email we had back in 1997,” he said.

“It works, so why change?”

“I’ll be here before the internet, I’ll be here after it. Don’t you think?”

Our reporter didn’t have an answer for him, so he just shrugged.

More to come.



