Mr Brideoake grew up in the Upper Hunter but left as a youngster to pursue his career endeavours and that’s exactly what he did leading a very interesting and satisfying professional life for many decades before returning to the shire in 2009 to be close to his family and help care for his elderly father. 

Many readers would know Mr Brideoake’s father and sister, as he said he is often known to people as Allan’s son or Beryl’s brother. 

Well, Allan is his 94-year-old father, a well-known Scone community member and proud war hero being a former prisoner of war in World War II.

Beryl Yates is Mr Brideoake’s one sister, who has lived in Scone since 1961 and together they care for their dad.

Originally hailing from West Wyalong, the Brideoake family moved to a farm at  Wingen where they ran ‘Mountain View’ next door to the well-known Callinan family. 

Mr Brideoake was 10-years-old at the time and attended Wingen Public School before moving on to Farrer Memorial Agricultural College for secondary.

After graduating in year 12, Mr Brideoake studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics at the University of New England preparing him for a diverse career, but one he didn’t really plan, it just worked out that way. 

As a young graduate, the country lad made the big move to Canberra to take on a position at the Department of  Agriculture where he worked for the following six years.

The next step in his career was one that would ultimately influence the remainder of his working life and played a major role in the development of a very fulfilling and rewarding profession working in the Kimberley and Northern Territory regions. 

Mr Brideoake started working as a rural officer in Inverell with the Aboriginal Development Commission where he spent four years purchasing rural properties for Aboriginal groups who could identify likes with the country as traditional country.

In 1984, his skills and professional experience were poached to coordinate a program to eradicate brucellosis and tuberculosis from all Northern Territory Aboriginal pastoral properties. 

It was in 1990 that Indigenous Business Australia was formed as a joint venture between white and Aboriginal people, focusing on the Jawoyn people who are the traditional owners of the Katherine Gorge. 

The alliance built, which Mr Brideoake played a large role in, was responsible for purchasing many iconic places, including the Kakadu Crocodile Hotel at Jabiru, Monkey Mia in Western Australia and a large coal mine in Queensland, to allow the people to build ownership and provide employment and training where possible. 

In 2005, Mr Brideoake decided to move to Perth with intentions of beginning a quiet retirement however soon started his own consulting firm which grew and grew throughout the following five years before he pulled back to move back to Scone for his family. 

Although he is semi-retired, Mr Brideoake still works part time in consulting and remains on the board of companies with Aboriginal ownership interests in Western Australia. 

Mr Brideoake said since he started working in Aboriginal economic development he has absolutely loved it. 

“It has been a very rewarding career, a very interesting and fulfilling career.

“I like dealing with Aboriginal people, particularly the traditional people, they’re great people,” he said.

“My career has taken me all over Australia to places where the average person doesn’t go or can’t go.

“My life has been very interesting, I chose an unusual tangent to go on, but have truly loved every bit of it.”

A very worldly man, Mr Brideoake has travelled extensively to countries such as Botswana, Zambia, Africa and South Africa, and more recently to Turkey and Jordan with his partner Julie. 

With a daughter as a professor at Washington DC, he has also travelled to America quite a bit to visit the family, including his grandson.

Mr Brideoake also has a son who is a school teacher in Canberra and has brought him another grandson. 

Since moving back to Scone, Mr Brideoake has become involved in a number of organisations as he feels with his corporate experience and background he can contribute something to community organisations. 

“I think if you’re semi-retired and got some skills, living in a small town, you should put your hand up and help to benefit everybody,” he said. 

“There are a lot of people out there who do a lot for this town, which is great.”

In 2011, he became a board member of TransCare and last year he took on the role of chairman of the board of seven voluntary members who are all “busy people trying to help”.

“I think TransCare is an incredible organisation that does great work for the region,” Mr Brideoake said. 

“TransCare is an undervalued entity in our town.

“It advantages a lot of people just in terms of the services provided,” he said.

After taking his father to the Probus Club meetings each month, Mr Brideoake was encouraged to join the club and became a committee member about two and a half years ago. 

He was appointed to the vice president’s position in March last year to quickly learn he would then become the president this year. 

Mr Brideoake said he really enjoys Probus as it is a great way for people like himself to get to know others in town. 

“Probus does a great job, it’s a place where men can go once a month, listen to an interesting guest speaker and catch up with mates,” he said. 

“It’s a good social outing and we have lots of great committees including the sports committee and tours committee.”

With his dad also being a  legatee, Mr Brideoake quickly became involved in the Scone Legacy Group – a small group of about nine people who care for war widows in town. 

Mr Brideoake has a number of war widows he checks on and provides assistance to where necessary, as well as helping to provide a Mother’s Day and Christmas lunch for them, assisting with smoke alarm battery changes, VitalCall and winter warming.  

“It’s not onerous, but it does a good job in the community and the war widows appreciate what is done for them,” he said. 

Recently, Mr Brideoake put his hand up to become involved in the Boys Mentoring program at Scone High School as he believes it is a good program to support the youngsters. 

“I have been incredibly lucky in my life with great parents who’ve been incredibly supportive and I want to be able to provide support to others,” Mr Brideoake said. 

Another project the busy man has been working on is one that is very special to him. 

He is currently in the process of completing the final edit of writing his dad’s story – Closer Then Brothers’ – which he has been working on with his father for the past 12 months for his family and close friends.