Brian Donohoe is one of the more interesting people you’ll find treading the turf. Th
e founder of Donohoe Ice, Brian has also had a close association with Essendon Football Club and our very own racetrack star, Bel Esprit. Read on …Brian Donohoe doesn’t fancy talking about himself very much … and is definitely not the type to blow his own trumpet.
Preferring to operate behind the scenes, even Google struggles to fill in the blanks.
Yet, for nigh on five decades, Brian has mixed it with captains of industry and icons of sport.
Brian is a highly successful businessman with a penchant for innovation … has been integrally involved – both as player and administrator – with one of Australian Football’s most successful clubs … and a passionate part owner of a true ‘rags to riches’ star of the turf and breeding barn.
He works hard – loves his footy – loves racing. In a nutshell, Brian Donohoe is the quintessential Australian story.
Growing up in Moonee Ponds (long before Dame Edna Everage brought international fame to the Melbourne suburb), Brian was a fair hand at footy, playing 35 first grade games with Essendon between 1956-60.
Although tied up with the neighbouring Aberfeldie football club for a spell, and spending some time coaching in Tasmania, Brian’s love affair with Essendon continues unabated.
But he also needed to earn a crust and, by the late 60s, early 70s, Brian was toiling away at his mum’s milk bar in Moonee Ponds.
With families becoming more mobile during this time (yes, children, there was a time when households didn’t have three cars), Brian cottoned onto the idea of selling ice to road warriors on their way to the beach or a barbie.
Purchasing an ice maker for the shop, that machine churned out 30 bags a day and Brian began catering to some hotels in the district.
Soon enough, demand began outstripping supply and Brian was determined to step up to the plate.
Thus Donohoe Ice was formed and a business legend born.
From those humble milk bar beginnings, Donohoe Ice can now produce up to 150 tons of ice per day.
Sure, you might not recognise the name, but it’s odds on you’ve sampled their product at some stage.
For starters, the company now supplies Qantas, Virgin and Jet Star and, in fact, every plane departing Melbourne carries Donohoe’s frozen water.
And what about all those times you’ve ducked into a Mobil, BP, Caltex or United servo to keep the slab and chardy cool … Donohoe Ice.
While it should come as no surprise that its clientele is diverse, the ‘honour roll’ is remarkable and testimony to Donohoe Ice’s reputation: with over 500 independent customers retailing in supermarkets, liquor outlets, restaurants, bars and hotels, catering groups ensure that the coldies remain cold Formula 1, Australian Open Tennis, Melbourne Cricket Ground, Telstra Dome, Royal Melbourne Show and, in particular, the spring carnival.
If it’s all sounding a little Melbourne-centric, Donohoe Ice also carted semi trailer loads of ice to Sydney each day for the 2000 Olympics.
With Christmas around the corner, ‘Mexicans’ can rest assured that their seafood has been kept fresh as Donohoe Ice is the sole supplier for the Melbourne Fish Market too.
It’s a matter of great pride for Brian – who has sons Peter and Rohan on board – that Donohoe Ice continues to kick goals from all over the park, purchasing and consolidating Polar Ice, Pure Ice and City Ice in recent years.
Advances in technology have been substantial as well. Given that yours truly can’t make it from the tap to the fridge without spilling half the ice tray, it’s difficult to explain the intricacies but the refrigeration is monitored 24/7, with backup machinery, while its packaging unit cuts and seals the plastic without any human contact.
So, in effect, you can be guaranteed there is no contamination right up until the time you throw the ice on the ground and start stomping on it with your dirty size 10s.
Donohoe Ice also has a cold storage division at its Tullamarine base, where 3000 pallets of frozen food is stored by Cadbury Schweppes, Top Cut, Gold Field Turkeys, Harry and Larry Ice Cream, Victoria Cold Store and Decicco Cream to name a few.
Cold storage is nothing new … those industrious Persians started the caper in approximately 400BC, but Donohoe Ice has turned it into an art form.
So much so that one of its divisions includes Ice Carving, supplying all the major hotels in Melbourne with those fancy ice sculptures.
Evidently they’re all the rage at parties, weddings, corporate functions, anniversaries, Christmas dos and the like, but you’ll be a long time dead before one raises its icy head at Gazza’s backyard barbie.
Maintaining close ties with Essendon FC despite the pressures of growing his business, Brian was made chairman of selectors in 1980, a position he held for seven seasons.
It coincided with an era of amazing success for the Bombers, who took out the AFL flag in 1984-85.
Under the coaching of Brian’s great mate, Kevin Sheedy, the roster included greats such as Simon Madden, Paul Salmon, Tim Watson, Terry Daniher, Mark Harvey, Mark Thompson, Paul Vander Haar and company.
Brian was also appointed chairman of recruiting in 88-96, a period which saw the likes of James Hird, Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas, Michael Long and Darren Bewick introduced to the club.
Fittingly, Brian took up the reins in establishing the Essendon Hall of Fame in 1994, taking a three month sabbatical to put that baby to bed.
By the late 90s, Brian could kick back a bit and enjoy the spoils of his toil, deciding to take a share in a horse with his old mate, Michael Duffy.
A member of Essendon’s inner circle, Michael was a minister in the Hawke Government and is now chairman of Racing Victoria Limited.
“A group of us – Michael included – get together every three or four months and have lunch … been doing it since 1980,” Brian reveals. “Anyway, Michael asked if I wanted to go into this horse with him …”
The horse was called Pretrial and while he was no world beater, he did win four in the Riverina and Brian was sold.
Yet, if Pretrial baited the hook, Brian’s next neddy would seal his fate.
Following the 2001 Sydney Classic Yearling Sale, Michael phoned Brian and asked him if he’d fancy taking a share or two in a Royal Academy colt that John Symons had picked up for a mere $9,000.
With Kevin Sheedy on board as well, Brian and son Peter took two sevenths of the partnership and the rest, as they say, is history.
The colt – named Bel Esprit – would go on to win his first five races, including the Blue Diamond Stakes-G1.
A bold front runner who captured the hearts and minds of Australia’s race going public, Bel Esprit was ridden by Wayne ‘Smokey’ Treloar, whose head bobbing and vigorous riding accentuated the horse’s catch me if you can tactics.
A real barrier rogue, at least in the early days, Brian’s blood pressure must have gone through the roof as attendants struggled to get the colt into the starting blocks.
But once those gates flew open, he was poetry in motion.
Asked when he first knew Bel Esprit was something special, Brian said: “Breakfast with the stars on the Tuesday prior to the Blue Diamond. Do you know, they even changed the time of the race to accommodate Kevin (Sheedy) who was coaching that day.”
Although tasting defeat for the first time in the Golden Slipper, Bel Esprit would go on to win the Doomben 10,000-G1 and run seconds in four other Group Ones, eventually retiring to Eliza Park Stud in the spring of 2003.
Just as Bel Esprit could find the line, so too it would seem, do his progeny and with only two crops of racing age, the son of Royal Academy is reigning Champion Victorian Sire.
And while it’s safe to assume that Bel Esprit has a rapidly growing fan base (covering an Australian record 266 mares last year), there is no-one that worships at the altar more than Brian Donohoe.
Recently commencing a Bel Esprit ‘blog’, Brian has maintained records of EVERY Bel Esprit runner and every one of their starts (some 700 by mid-December).
And he has kept just about every scrap of information written about his pride and joy.
It’s a drive synonymous with everything Brian has tackled in life – his business, football administration, playing, coaching, ‘recreation’ and racehorse ownership.
One thing the internet did throw up about Brian was quotes from the Australian Story: a piece they did on Kevin Sheedy in the wake of his sacking as Essendon coach last year.
Lauding his long-time mate, Brian told the ABC: “He had a passion about what he wanted to do in his life” and “Kevin’s the sort of bloke you’d go to war with”.
I’m tipping that if you asked a few people who have benefited from his passion, they’d say the same thing about Brian Donohoe.
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