AN APPETITE TO SUCCEED
A FAMILY BUSINESS CAME THROUGH HARD TIMES THANKS TO A POPULAR ACCIDENTAL PRODUCT
Ravioli and pasta maker Bert Pagano recalls a time when the often-bypassed community of Moresby, south of Innisfail, was a booming social hub.
“We used to be (on) the highway, but then they wanted to straighten the highway up, and moved the road over a couple of metres and now we’re on an access road,” Bert says.
The one-street town surrounded by cane fields is now confined to a defunct primary school, about a dozen houses, and a few small businesses, including Mary’s Pasta, a brand born by accident.
Bert operates the popular pasta store from the old Moresby General Store building, which was founded by his parents Albert and Mary Pagano in the late ’40s.
“My dad was in the army, but after the second war, he had to leave and return to his father’s cane farm at Cowley,” Bert says.
“But he never liked farming, so in 1948, Mum and Dad bought this store as the general store.
“You have to remember, in those days no one had cars, and due to the north Queensland weather, it wasn’t easy to travel around. You’d be lucky if you went into town once a week. So everyone hung out in their small communities. That’s why north Queensland is made up of all these little towns, and there were general stores everywhere – they’d be really busy.”
Born in the early ’60s, Bert recalls just how populated and vibrant the region was as the price of sugar started to rise.
“All these big farms around here were just small, 50-acre farms. Everything was done by hand and so you would have farm crews coming into town for work for about eight months of the year. It was an additional 50 to 60 people, which was a lot.
“There would be dances at the school on the weekends, and Dad had a bocce lane out the back, so people would play that and cards; that was everyone’s social life.”
But as the region grew wealthier with a booming sugar industry, something had to give, and unfortunately for Bert and his family, this was the beginning of the end for small towns like Moresby.
He’s lived there his whole life, considered leaving multiple times but “life’s circumstances” have always got in the way.
In his mid 20s, Bert was an irrigation worker in the banana industry, but Cyclone Winifred blew his career away.
So he started helping out at his parent’s store, and never left.
“But as the price of sugar went up, technology was coming in,” Bert says.
“Farms were being sold out, there were less workers coming into town and general stores were starting to die, because the big supermarkets had started moving in.
“By then, Mum and Dad were lucky because they were already wholesaling pasta and ravioli commercially.
“It all started by accident. Back when it was the general store, Mum had some ravioli stored in the corner of the freezer. A farmer came in one day and wanted to buy a bag, but it wasn’t for sale. Another three days later he wanted another bag. So Mum decided to one day put out about (a dozen) bags for sale and see what happens.”
Those 12 bags turned into a brand called Mary’s Pasta and a supply chain for multiple independent stores, restaurants and supermarkets from Ingham to Cairns and the Tablelands, including popular diners Roscoes Pizza, Jagad’s and Ochre Restaurant.
“I think it’s popular because it’s a secret family recipe,” Bert says.
“There’s not many general stores left now, but Mum and Dad were lucky because they diversified, even if it was by accident.
“I’ve tried to diversify as well, so I have a bit of a deli here and I do coffee. But I have no kids, there’s no succession plan. After me, that’s it.”