Vale Antony John (Tony) Cooper, 1934 – 2024
by Doug Patterson
Entrepreneur, Fashion Designer, Tailor, Interior Decorator, Businessman, Developer, Natural Health Exponent in Vibration Medicine and Colour Harmonics.
Tony, one of four boys, was born in London in 1934 but moved with the family to Kent in 1945. He later moved with his Mother and brother Bob to the Channel Island of Jersey in 1954. Here he met Marion and they were married in 1955.
While living in Jersey, Tony demonstrated early entrepreneurial skills when he used his experience and interest in men’s clothing, fashion design and sewing to open his own bespoke men’s wear store, High Style Menswear.
This risk-taking, can-do behaviour was to define his life, while design, colour and fashion became enduring elements of many later ventures. However, his combination of design and sewing skills resulted in a somewhat unique relationship he had with his two daughters, Shiralee and Tina. He designed and made clothing for them from toddlers through to their teens and later their wedding gowns.
In 1967, along with his wife Marion, daughters, Shiralee and Tina, and adopted son, Richard, Tony resettled in Australia. After initially renting, the family quickly settled in The Gap, Brisbane where Tony opened an interior decorating business, High Style Interiors. During these years, he became aware of the role of colour in psychology, as a non-intrusive therapy and natural healing modality. While pursuing this interest, Tony was on the lookout for business opportunities.
On a visit to the Sunshine Coast, Tony saw a business opportunity in an old motel and service station in poor repair and purchased the joint businesses. Within a year Tony had renovated the entire building and created a modern caravan park with all the amenities as well as a huge aviary.
The family spent a few years in Eumundi where Tony bred Arab horses at Viscount Stud.
He predicted that skating would take off and invested in a skating rink; Sunskate in Caloundra, soon followed by Westworld in Burnside, and then in collaboration with Tina at The Deep in Albany Creek.
Tony and Marion were living in Mapleton when a few vacant blocks came up for sale near the school. After initial plans for a tourist attraction failed to gain Council approval, Tony went on to replace the Old Maple Town plans with a modern service station, café, gift store, ceramic studio and more. These businesses evolved and consolidated over time and now operate under the current owners, the Anderson family.
However, Tony’s interest in natural healing, particularly in vibrational medicine and colour harmonics matured, and after spending several years in the UK exploring colour as a therapy, in 1991, Tony and Marion launched Aura Light at Unicornis, Mapleton. They set off back to the UK soon after in the early 1990s and purchased the partially built Rainbow Farm as the production and distribution centre for Unicorn 2000 Oils and Essences.
In 1999, Tony published his definitive work, Colour the Cosmic Code, in which he established the philosophy and foundation of beliefs on the properties of colour and called on ancient and current truths that underpin its use in association with vibrational medicine. As this business grew, Tony was invited to speak to numerous groups and undertook lecture tours to a range of European countries, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia.
Tony and Marion returned to Australia in 2002, building a home, Sun Valley, at 29 Manley Drive, Montville in 2004. From there, Tony continued to run the Unicorn 2000 business for six years before building again, next door, in 2010. Their new home, Far Horizons, included a larger laboratory/work-space for greater production efficiency. Then, in 2015, they built their third Montville home at 3/39 Gaden Road and Tony scaled back the business as he planned to semi-retire.
Few people on the Blackall Range would be aware of his achievements and his early successes in fashion and design and his vision to take on new challenges. Older residents who still support the Mapleton IGA and Ampol Service Station remember Tony with a sense of gratitude for recognising the needs of the community and the ability to meet these with panache. However, everyone will remember Tony walking his beautiful, almost regal Salukis, Earl and Ella, and later Leah, down Main Street in Montville and around Lily Ponds in Mapleton.
Tony will be remembered as a gentle man who brought colour into the lives of so many.
Comentários