Former Holocaust survivor and “Australian of The Year’’ Sir Peter Abeles established the Australian Cancer Research Foundation in 1984. When he died in 1999 many prominent Australians took time out to praise the former Nazi death camp survivor.

It was no less a figure than former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke who once described Sir Peter Abeles as not only “a giant of a man with a driving public profile but also a fantastic friend behind the scenes.’’

Fellow former Prime Minister John Howard said Sir Peter’s 1999 death removed a significant figure from the Australian business community and that he typified a group of European-born Australian entrepreneurs who as young people left a still war-devastated Europe to make a new life in Australia.

“In the process, they gave much to their new country,” he said. “He was a dominant figure in the Australian transport industry for several decades through both Ansett Transport Industries and TNT.’’

Even rival transport magnate, Melbourne businessman Lindsay Fox, said Sir Peter Abeles was an outstanding individual. “His scope and his vision was way ahead of anyone else in the industry. Peter was very tough but his vision for what he did was nothing more than incredible.”

Former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty said Sir Peter Abeles was a “decent and humane person”, with a vision for Australia that ‘few people have matched’. “He respected those who worked with him, negotiated countless agreements with unions and the ACTU, and not once broke his word.

Sir Peter Abeles was born in Vienna, Austria, April 25, 1924 and died Sydney June 25, 1999 aged 75.

Bob Hawke wrote on the occasion of his death in The Australian newspaper that “from the moment of his arrival in 1949, Peter loved his new country: “It was an instant attraction that became an abiding passion.”

“What we who were born here took for granted were, for him, qualities to be embraced and cherished. For the young Hungarian Jew who had seen his people humiliated and murdered by Nazi oppressors, who had suffered at their hands and been lucky to escape with his life, Australia was indeed the Promised Land.’’ wrote Hawke.

“The freedom, the tolerance, the irreverence for class and status, the “fair go” syndrome were like oxygen that supercharged an already immense natural talent. Peter never acquired our accent but he absorbed our spirit.

“The story of his phenomenal achievements in the world of business is reasonably well known. They are also for me, in a sense, the less important part of a true appreciation of this great Australian.”

“From a family background of prewar affluence, Peter Abeles had the humblest beginnings in his new country — as a door-to-door salesman of books and clothing. He then launched his career in the transport industry by acquiring with his friend from Hungary, George Rockey, two second-hand trucks, which they named — somewhat prophetically — Samson and Delilah.

“Reading of a tender to be let at Broken Hill for the transport of products from the mines, Peter and George set off in their old car, blissfully unaware of and totally unprepared for the rigors of the Australian outback — central Europeans down to their suits and ties and carrying, wrapped in a napkin, some Wiener schnitzels cooked by their wives.

“In searing heat they were hit by a tremendous rainstorm, abandoned their immobilized vehicle, limped and hobbled for 30km or so and, in a state of utter exhaustion, finally made it to the Hill. They got the contract and never looked back.”

“With George running operations in the field and Peter’s organizational and business genius, their company, Alltrans, was unstoppable. It merged with Ken Thomas’s Thomas Nationwide Transport in 1967 and Peter Abeles became chief executive of TNT.”

“Under his dynamic leadership, by the 1980s TNT became the second biggest transport empire in the world, operating by road, rail, sea and air in more than 60 countries, with more than 55,000 employees.’’

Of the 5.5 million immigrants and more than half a million refugees who have made Australia their home since World War II, Hawke said none can match the breadth and magnitude of Sir Peter Abeles business achievement.

“Many have made more money, but the accumulation of personal wealth was not Peter’s driving motivation. His holding in TNT was always minuscule and the pursuit of commercial interests outside TNT occupied only a small proportion of his time. He was, of course, financially comfortable, but he could have been infinitely wealthier had he chosen to bend his talents in that direction.

“Peter’s overriding ambition was to build a global enterprise of which he and his adopted country could be proud. In seeking to understand how he achieved that ambition, it is not enough simply to dwell on his intellectual brilliance,’’ praised Hawke.

“Certainly he had a Rolls Royce of a mind, which, as many business leaders around the world can testify, he could deploy with singular determination. But, as I found from my first meeting with Peter, this was only part of the story’’

Sir Peter Abeles joined forces with Rupert Murdoch to take over Ansett Transport Industries in 1979, and was joint managing director and chief executive between 1980 and 1992.

Away from business, Sir Peter’s passion was cards — either intense bridge games or very high-stakes poker. For many years, the then NSW premier, Sir Robert Askin, was a regular at Sir Peter’s poker school.

It was Askin’s government that recommended Sir Peter for his knighthood (for services to business and the arts) in 1972. Sir Peter was chairman of the Australian Cancer Foundation for Medical Research and chairman of the Australian Opera Foundation.

He was appointed a Companion (AC) in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 1991 and, in 1987, was The Australian’s Australian of the Year.

Hawke wrote that Sir Peter’s genuineness was transparent and this was reflected in practical terms throughout his career at the head of TNT and Ansett. “Peter truly appreciated the contribution to his corporate success of his employees; he respected them and they, and their union representatives, in turn respected him.’’

Hawke’s recommendation saw his friend appointed as a director of the Reserve Bank by then treasurer Keating in 1984.

“But beyond Peter Abeles the giant of business was the equal colossus of Peter Abeles the man — warm, generous, erudite and humorous. Truly a man of the world, fluent in half-a-dozen languages, he had a profound interest in international affairs,” recalled Hawke

Sir Peter built up and cultivated a network of friends that covered all sides of the political spectrum and embraced all strata of business. Seeking to explain his enormous network of influence, he once remarked: “I can’t help it if my friends have been successful in their fields.”

He was generous with his time and money in charitable and community causes — he established and chaired the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, which raised and distributed millions of dollars for research into the disease that, unexpectedly, was to claim his life.

Hawke said Sir Peter once joked “I always thought I’d die of a heart attack”, patting his formidable girth, on telling me he had an incurable cancer. He helped many individuals in need, without any publicity, out of his own resources.’’

“For me, the death of Peter Abeles leaves a void that can never be filled. This country that he adopted and loved, and that owes so much to him, is the poorer for his passing.”

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