Picture: Steve Pohlner

GRAHAM Turner, right, a knockabout former veterinary surgeon, is a potent symbol of modern business success in Queensland.

The Stanthorpe-born Flight Centre founder, declared last year as the richest person in Queensland, went from bussing backpackers around Europe to heading a $1.4 billion company.

Turner has a personal fortune worth $465 million and his 600 Flight Centres make up Australia's fourth-largest retailer, after Coles Myer, Woolworths and Harvey Norman.

Turner caters to an adventurous young public with increasing disposable income. He keeps salaries low but performance bonuses high. Profit sharing is encouraged and the overwhelmingly young staff exude confidence and a distinct pleasure to be dealing with customers.

In 1973, the recently graduated vet spent £400 sterling on a bus to carry backpackers from London to Morocco.

That bus purchase turned into Top Deck Travel which a decade later had more than 100 buses in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, the United States and Central America.

In Britain, Turner noticed the growth of the so-called "bucket shops", the cheap and cheerful travel agencies that sold discounted air fares.

He set about establishing similar shops in Australia, working through a loose network that was to become Flight Centres International.