Neerim sports
Neerim District Secondary College conducted its annual swimming sports last week, just before the snap lockdown closed schools.
Students headed to the local pool around lunchtime to compete in their events, with plenty of fun had by all.
Kurnai House proved too strong in the pool, taking house honours, while in the boys over 15, Maverick Matheson was named individual champion. Girls over 15 individual champion was Tiffany Matheson, while boys under 15 champion was Jack Marshall and girls under 15 champion was Maddison Brown.
Right - The “green machine” out in full force as (from back left) Owen Zimora, Oscar Robinson, Hardy Kenny, Dylan Gauci and Drew O’Brien get in the swimming sports spirit.
It has been a little over four decades since a 22-year-old rev-head - sporting a mullet and a love for anything with an engine - lobbed into Nar Nar Goon chasing his dream.
A young Bruce Clough had honed his mechanical skills and customer rapport in a thriving ‘backyard’ business, fixing and modifying cars in the driveway of his father’s Werribee home.
He was ready to take the next step and quickly snapped up a towing and mechanical repair business he saw advertised in The Age in late 1974, despite the initial misgivings of his then-girlfriend and later wife Sue, who thought he had taken her to the end of the earth.
Over the next few years, Bruce and Sue grew both the business and a young family, with four boys being welcomed into the fold.
The Cloughs soon added a few used cars to the towing and mechanical repair business and in late 1994 seized an opportunity to add the Mazda dealership. Sadly, Bruce succumbed to an aggressive form of cancer in July 2013, aged only 61. Towards the end, he got the boys - Paul, Kane, Ben and Zac - together and told them that he had taken the business where he could and it was up to them to go to the next level.
“Bruce would be very proud of what the boys have done,” Sue told the Gazette. A timeline marking significant developments in the company’s history hangs proudly in the foyer of their new dealership in Pakenham.
“It’s our story and we are proud of it,” said Paul, who is now dealer principal.
“Bruce always had good vision,” Sue said. “He could always see where
things were heading.”
Bruce and Sue had just arrived back from an overseas trip and were heading back to Nar Nar Goon when they noticed the Mazda dealership in Pakenham had closed up.
It had been run for years by the Elliott family and been passed on to the Blanchards, who closed it after a couple of years.
Bruce told Sue he would give Mazda a call and they had secured the dealership within three months, with the first truckload of six Mazda vehicles arriving December 2016. “Mazda was doing well in the 1970s and ‘80s, but lost its way a bit in the ‘90s,” Paul explained.
The growth eventually came on the back of the “Zoom-Zoom boom” and Australia now has the highest market share for Mazda in the world and has the highest rate of customer satisfaction.
Mazdas are now the second most
popular cars nationally.
It was the growth of both the Mazda brand and the Cardinia Shire region that led to the development of the new dealership.
Paul said Mazda had confidence that the Cloughs had the area well covered, but were mindful of the need for future expansion.
So the boys put the feelers out for a new site and Ray Weinzierl from Car Megamart offered the opportunity of a corner block on Commercial Drive in the new South East Business Park at Pakenham.
The Cloughs bought the land with the intention of sitting on it until the need to expand arose, but were advised that it would be in their best interests to move in as soon as possible.
So Montlaur Project Services and construction firm the APM Group, which built the events and administration centre at Racing.com Park at Tynong, were engaged and the new state-of-the-art showroom quickly took shape.
Since the relocation, the Cloughs have seen an increase in both new and used sales as well as now having a facility and processes to manage the additional servicing capacity. Pakenham Mazda is now well placed to be able to meet all of the requirements and expectations of customers as the area continues to grow and expand.
Although their surroundings are all shiny and new, links to the past remain.
Sitting in a frame on the top of a filing cabinet in Paul’s office is a VACC Tech School Special Mention certificate, presented to one Bruce Stanley Clough back in 1969.
He is still around in many other ways as well.
Paul says the work ethic and customer service developed by that 22-year-old revhead in the mid-1970s will continue to be a cornerstone of the business.
“We pride ourselves to look after our customers the best we can. Our purposebuilt state-of-the-art facility provided new opportunities to expand our quality service range and has exceeded customer expectations,” Paul explained.
“Our point of difference is our relationship with the local area,” Paul said. “We have local knowledge and a focus on relationships and customer service qualities that were instilled in us by Dad. “We are happy to be judged on how we treat our customers. Networking and word of mouth has always been a big part of our success - and will continue to be.
“It keeps you on your toes. We don’t want to go to the local footy and find out that we have given someone bad service.
“That’s not what the Cloughs are about.”