FROM a young boy milking cows in Casino to a live export entrepreneur and industry stalwart, Sid Parker has transcended the tumult many fall prey to.
His ostensibly cavalier attitude belies his sharp mind and astute eye for business.
Almost five weeks ago, his achievements accumulated to reach a pinnacle an invite to the Order of Australia (OAM), General Division.
It was an accolade Mr Parker accepted with humility.
"I'm very proud about it, but I don't think I did anything more than other people either," he said.
Since beginning in the sector in the NT in the late 1950s, Mr Parker has aided and grown the works of industry greats to weave a solid and resilient live export trade.
The OAM recognises his most significant contributions, namely as founding member of the NT Livestock Exporters Association and chairman from 1995 to 2000 and since 2009.
He has been on the Australian Livestock Exporters Council since 1985. He is currently general manager of South East Asian Livestock Services (SEALS).
He said he formed the service with former agent John Kaus in the mid-1990s after an export venture with David George and Ian Britten-Jones sold out to the Brunei Government.
Mr Parker's subsequent retire- ment plans were foiled when the government "walked out of the export game", and Mr Kaus, the company's agent in Manila, approached Mr Parker to form a partnership.
From its loading facility in the Karumba marina, SEALS has grown to export between 50,000 and 60,000 head a year to South East Asia.
Tendrils of Mr Parker's hard work ethic set in early on.
He was "brought up in the Comet Hotel", Comet, in Central Queensland, where he lived for 30 years.
"We always had stock, cows and our own land there. I milked cows there from the time I was four or five," Mr Parker said.
He arrived in the NT in 1957 to work for Lord William Vestey's burgeoning empire, before moving to join Henderson and Trippe's export business to Hong Kong and Manila.
The ensuing years witnessed export's stark ebb and flow, flourishing after the war then falling with the opening of abattoirs in Darwin and Katherine.
Mr Parker then accepted a work request with Sir William Gunn's company Tarwinnebah, which "really started export of cattle", according to Mr Parker.
He then moved into exporter giant Austrex, which he said bought out Sir William in 1973.
Life outside live export soon beckoned, and Mr Parker followed "a few other things" before coming on board with buffalo and cattle exporters David George and Ian Britten-Jones.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the company sent buffalo to overseas markets including Cuba and Nigeria, before another hurdle hit the industry.
"Then, of course, people don't realise, but in 1978 I think it was, Australia got the blue tongue scare and there were no exports for two years," he said.
It opened again in the 1980s with high demand for breeder cattle, followed by Indonesian interest in feeder cattle, Mr Parker said.
Indonesia's latest shifts towards self-sufficiency in what was just a "hiccup" between governments didn't worry him. "I've been going to Indonesia for 40 years and that's always their talk, but the population is growing there by over two million a year, the seas are fished out and they are desperate for protein."
Vietnam is trying hard and wants to build on a trial shipment late last year, but is finding it hard to raise the money, he says.
Plans to hang up his hat have reared but been quickly discarded over the years, as 86-year-old Mr Parker prefers to keep himself busy.
"What do you do when you retire? You see station managers who have been working seven days week for 50 years retire, and they say they bought a house down on the Sunshine Coast, and you ask, what are you going to do, and they say, I'll do a bit of fishing," he said.
But Mr Parker says not long after, an obituary appears in the paper.
"They've got nothing to do. You've got to keep yourself busy."
Although, he does get pulled into line occasionally. "I've slowed down. They won't let me go past Noonamah (outside Darwin)."
Mr Parker's OAM recognises more than his livestock export successes. It highlights his 32-year membership with Darwin Turf Club, including prominent roles, and awards such as the 2000 Australian Sports Medal.
Mr Parker has also received three hall of fame inductions in livestock exporter, NT racing and international trade halls of fame.
He and other OAM recipients will attend a presentation in Darwin in mid-May.
