The Queensland town where the Nioa family had its earliest beginnings in business has honoured NIOA Group CEO Rob Nioa as the Australian munitions company marks 50 years.

Mr Nioa, who has been CEO of the defence prime since 2002, joins captains of industry, Olympians, political leaders, Rhodes Scholars, inventors, war heroes and pioneers on Maryborough’s Walk of Achievers.

Family matriarch 86-year-old Barbara Nioa yesterday was among family members and community leaders in the Fraser Coast city’s Portside Heritage Precinct to see Mr Nioa included with 10 other new Walk of Achievers inductees at a ceremony presided over by Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour.

“Each plaque celebrates a different achiever from Maryborough,” Cr Seymour said. “It is a great way to show everyone, particularly young people, that you don’t need to be from a big city to achieve extraordinary things.”

The Walk of Achievers project began in 1999 and recognises how “ordinary Australians can achieve extraordinary feats”. It now consists of more than 90 brass plaques set into the Wharf Street and Richmond Street footpaths, honouring current and former Maryborough residents.

There is nothing more “ordinary” than NIOA’s early foundations which can be traced back to a tin and timber roadside fruit stall run by Bill and Barbara Nioa just outside Maryborough or “extraordinary” than its evolution into a global munitions company with their youngest son at the helm.

“This is a proud moment on a personal level but also for our family and company,” said Mr Nioa who began his working life on the family’s Kent St, Maryborough fuel station during school holidays.

“Maryborough has always been a town that punches well above its weight, and continues to, across many fields of endeavour. Congratulations to all the inductees – I am honoured to be among them.

“For NIOA, our story had its foundations here with my parents’ hard work balancing the running of their small produce, fuel and tyre businesses while bringing up a family.

“To be where we are today as Australia’s top privately-owned defence prime and now a global munitions company is a tremendous achievement and a success that all our loyal employees – past and present – can share in.

“It’s a story that will always be inextricably linked to Maryborough.”

The Nioa family has been part of Maryborough’s history for six decades.

The family’s first commercial enterprise was a stall selling produce from their nearby farm on the side of the Bruce Highway at Tiaro, Queensland.

It was the late 1960s when Bill and Barbara sold the farm to buy a vacant Tiaro service station and built the business into a successful truckstop.

While NIOA is today a global munitions business with operations in three countries, its first geographical expansion happened in 1971 when the family took over the Shell fuel depot in Kent St, Maryborough.

The business eventually grew to include several fuel stations and it was at one of these, in 1973 in Gladstone, that Bill, a shooting enthusiast, began selling firearms after the incumbent local dealer failed to deliver Bill’s ammo order for a pig hunting trip.

That marked the birth of the NIOA Group as we know it today.

With a staff of more than 400, NIOA is now the dominant supplier of firearms, weapons, munitions and technical support to the Australian and New Zealand defence, law enforcement and commercial markets.

Its operations include the joint venture Rheinmetall NIOA Munitions manufacturing plant in Maryborough, the Australian Missile Corporation and US-based Barrett Firearms.

“What is truly unique is NIOA remains 100 per cent family and Australian owned,” Mr Nioa said.

“We can be proud of our longevity in reaching 50 years in the firearms industry.

“While it’s our history that has shaped us, it’s our core family values that continue to drive our endeavours now and into the future.”

Fraser Coast Mayor George Seymour congratulates Robert Nioa upon his inclusion in the Maryborough Walk of Achievers at yesterday’s induction ceremony where the NIOA Group CEO was joined by family, including his mum Barbara who still lives in the Fraser Coast city.