“He is a unique man because he has an amazing ability to negotiate without you actually realising you’re conceding,” Mrs McDonald laughed, while speaking at last week’s retirement lunch that acknowledged Bob McDonald’s 40 year milestone as a Cloncurry Shire councillor and as the receiver of an Order of Australia Medal.

“He can do an argument well but he can also be generous in his compliments to win you over.”

By the way, 40-years as councillor is not the only milestone for Cr McDonald. His daughter Adelaide announced that her parents celebrated their 40-year wedding anniversary in January.

Mrs McDonald first met her husband when she visited Cloncurry from Atlanta, America, in the mid-1970s. Her brother and Bob’s sister were getting married.

The exchange rate was terrible for an American at the time so she worked at the McDonalds’ Brightlands Station, spending more time with Bob.

She returned to America but in January 1976 they married. Mrs McDonald resisted becoming an Australian citizen until the Daylight Savings Referendum in 1992, but keeps traces of her Georgian accent.

Two months later the then 28-year-old Cr McDonald was voted in a councillor.

“It was a mutual decision, we thought ‘why not, let’s go for it,’ so he did,” Mrs McDonald said. “The people of Cloncurry were good enough to re-elect him all those times.”

Cr McDonald, 68, said he entered local government at “the very depths of the cattle depression”.

The large shire’s reliance on beef meant money was thinly spread.

“We wanted roads improvement, and rather than sit on the sidelines and criticise I decided to get involved, and I’ve never regretted it,” Cr McDonald said.

“In town here there was a need for streets and water was always a problem. There was plenty to occupy your mind.”

About halfway through his career as councillor the mines began to develop, which expanded the rate base and income to the shire.

Chinaman Creek Dam was built with government help. Other projects included the weir and the pipeline from Lake Julius through Ernest Henry mine which improved water security.

“It was so important trying to get people living in these areas and it’s disappointing at the end of the year you’ve got to screw them down to literally a trickle of water,” Cr McDonald said.

He will continue to watch political decisions with interest from a distance, but he believed his experience and voice could be replaced by younger people, and hopefully representing rural ratepayers.

“I was told by a wise old chap that the cemeteries are full of people who thought they couldn’t be done without,” Cr McDonald said.

“There’s always somebody that comes in and takes over.”

Cr McDonald is not just a long serving local government representative, an OAM recipient, Mrs McDonald’s husband, or the father of Marjorie, Kate, Alistair, Adelaide, or Eleanor.

He’s also a director of large beef business MDH, which has about 175,000 head of cattle across 11 cattle stations, which includes Brightlands, Devoncourt, Stradbroke and Chatsworth.

The MDH director is described as “down to earth” with good stock management skills by former jackaroo George Goodwin, who in 1972-76 worked for Cr McDonald and older brother Don, and their father Jim - once a shire councillor known to have lived until the age of 105.

“(Bob) became my best friend, he became my best man, he was wonderful,” Mr Goodwin said.

“They were like mentors to me...they were just down to earth, they knew how to manage men and stock and were never pretentious.

“Even when they became a much bigger organisation they never forgot where they came from.”

He spoke at Cr McDonald’s retirement lunch at the Cloncurry community precinct where 160 guests attended including LGAQ chief executive Greg Hallam. 40 more people on properties were rained out and unable to attend.

Cr McDonald unveiled an Alice Finlay portrait in his image that will hang in the library named after him. He was described by speakers including mayor Andrew Daniels as an advocate for arts, literature and culture in the shire.

“Your knowledge will be missed,” Cr Daniels said to his former deputy mayor. “I was very fortunate to have you in my corner.

“Your one-liners have been entertaining.”

Cr McDonald’s sense of humour was often appreciated by other councillors, including Colin Ferguson, who was first employed by the McDonalds when he arrived in Cloncurry 26 years ago.

“It was always a good atmosphere when we were working with Bob,” he said.

“We could always count on him to have a laugh at the end of it.”

Cr McDonald’s older sister Patricia Mitchell agreed about the “wicked” sense of humour. “Mary, Don and I (three older siblings) treated him like a toy, we dressed him up and had a lot of fun.”