CITY ICONS
MISTER BOAT SHOW
Entertainer, event organiser, Boat Show entrepreneur … Barry Jenkins has done it all over his long and varied career. WORDS RHONDA OXNAM
MOST PEOPLE HAVE A TALE or two to tell, however, when you have lived a life as interesting and diverse as Sanctuary Cove stalwart Barry Jenkins, you literally have enough to fill a book. The stories come thick and fast during our two-hour interview as we cover everything from his childhood in Brisbane to his years at the helm of the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show and everything in between. While I don’t have room to share all of them let’s start, if not at the very beginning, with his early years when he interrupted a fitting and turning apprenticeship to pursue a career in the Merchant Navy with the Adelaide Steamship Company. “Unfortunately, because of an accident at sea, my deck officer apprenticeship was terminated after three years and a return to land was ordered by medicos,” Barry recalls. So he came back to Brisbane to complete his original Engineering Fitting and Turning Diploma, working as an engraver by day, while also playing piano at the city’s first international standard restaurant, the Camelia Restaurant, in the evenings on weekends.
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Then came a pivotal point in his career. “Stewart’s Criterion Hotel had undergone a major renovation and our company, Engraving Unlimited, won the contract to supply all the signage,” Barry recalls. “While installing the last sign of the project in the Hour Glass Bar I overheard the maître d'hôtel mention that they were urgently looking for a pianist to play at an event that evening. “From my position at the top of the ladder I said I could do it, and after much discussion I was reluctantly given the job. “I didn’t have time to go home and get changed so I ended up in a very dark corner of the room, playing with my white overalls done up to the neck, wearing a black bow tie and a red waiter’s jacket over the top, hoping nobody could see me.” After this inauspicious start, he went on to establish BarryJ Entertainment, providing entertainment for Stewarts Hotels and a number of venues in Brisbane, on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts and in Japan. Fast forward a few years and Barry and his partner are running Caballo Riding and Saddlery Centre on the Sunshine Coast.
During their regular trips to Brisbane, the pair often had dinner at the iconic Oriental Restaurant in The Valley which was operated by Judy Lee, a former Miss Australia, and her husband Albert. Having decided he would quite like to learn the role of front of house manager, Barry had a conversation with the proprietors and Judy agreed to show him the ropes. “On my first night, I turned up smartly dressed, ready to greet patrons, only to learn I would be literally starting at the bottom,” Barry explains. “Judy said, ‘no, no, no, you don’t start on the floor, don’t be ridiculous, come with me’. “She took me down to the basement and right at the very back there was room full of wine and you have never seen a bigger mess in your life. “She said, ‘your job is to clean this all out, learn about the wine that is here and catalogue it all’. “Once I got my head around that, Albert took me into the kitchen and taught me the basics of Chinese cooking. “And then they turned me loose on the floor.” On his very first night, Barry proceeded to spill six bottles of Crown Lager into the lap of a very
