Retirement plans lead to Mermaid opportunity

PETER Mitchell, who with wife Dee is selling adjoining beachfront homes at Mermaid Beach, quickly deduced that the idea of drilling holes for peanut farmers was itself full of holes.

The founder of Mitchell Drilling, these days part of ASX listed company Mitchell Services, made the decision to go out on his own in 1969.

He and Dee spent their life savings, as well as Dee’s superannuation, on an $11,500 second-hand Mayhew 1000 drilling rig.

They headed to Kingaroy to drill water bores for peanut farmers.

It seems it didn’t take long for Peter to work out that there was no long-term future in water bores – when it rained farmers cancelled their drilling work.

The Mitchells expanded into mineral exploration for the likes of Thiess Peabody Mitsui near Nebo in central Queensland.

One of the first things Peter did when setting up camp was to drill a hole for a toilet, which was then ‘privatised’ with a piece of hessian strung between four poles.

Mitchell Drilling went on to swell in size and to operate in countries such as Russia, India, Zambia and Mozambique.

It merged with fellow drill company Drill Torque in 2013 and, trading as Mitchell Services, ‘spudded in’ a spot on the ASX.

Peter and Dee spent $200,000 buying their first beachfront Mermaid home in 1981 and lashed outin 2005, paying $5 million for a neighbouring duplex.

The Brisbane residents are selling because they’re on the doorstep of retirement.