Tributes flood in for Malcolm Petrie as Mitre 10 staff form guard of honour for beloved colleague

A guard of honour was a sight to behold on Monday morning, September 5, as the hearse carrying Malcolm passed by Mudgee's Mitre 10 on Church Street, a fitting honour for a man who gladly served his community for so many years.

A sea of tributes have flooded in for Malcolm since his passing from the local and business communities around Mudgee and the Central West.

Malcolm's daughter Annette remembered her father as a kind and generous man.

"His kindness, strong intellect, love of people, sense of fairness, humor, shone through in whatever he did. He connected with people; he saw the best in people," she said.

"In the last weeks of Dad's life, he was observed reciting some words and counting them off on his fingers. We then realised that he was reciting the Scout Law which he would have learnt as a boy. A scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent. This sums up who our father was - he lived his entire life by these laws."

She said the outpouring of love for her father has been overwhelming.

"We have as a family been absolutely overwhelmed and humbled by the community care and support given to our family since dad died," she said.

"The respect shown from our local community and beyond has been incredible. The beautiful comments on Facebook, the caring, respectful words from people we would meet in the street, the phone calls, the flowers. It has been unbelievable. We knew our father as a wonderful presence in our family and we also knew what a friendly, well-known man he was in our community."

"Dad never sought acknowledgment of who he was or what he did, he was just a good man. The past few weeks and the response to dad's death has shone a light on that fact, that he was a good man, a good friend, a respected member of our community."

The hardware store carrying his namesake, opened in Mudgee in October 1986. During a very different working environment to today. There was a lot of manual labour, closing at 12pm on a Saturday, fixing your own equipment and lots of mental arithmetic around pricing and quoting. Mal built a successful business through his astute mind and his people skills - tradies would ask for him by name and would wait for him until he was free - just to have that personal treatment.

Liam Collier, Business Development Manager at the Independent Hardware Group which owns the Mitre 10 brand remembered Mal as a titan of the industry and a great bloke.

"Mal had many years serving on Advisory Councils. He quite enjoyed seeing the workings of Mitre 10 and the responsibility of setting direction for the brand. He even represented the brand on TV commercials when Paul Cronin was the Mitre 10 frontman, and was generally recognised as one of the faces of Mitre 10 NSW," he said.

"Mal and Carmel built a very special legacy. They invested years of hard work when they brought every single invoice home and checked and rechecked them for accuracy. Mal gave his guidance, his mentorship and his cooperation towards other Mitre 10 members and suppliers.

"He represented everything that was good about a family run business with deep respect for the community in which they worked, and the staff that ran their business. He valued every customer that supported the Mitre 10 brand, particularly in the face of corporate competition.

"He will be sadly missed by the Mitre 10 families across Australia, but we are very grateful for the time he gave to our brand, and the amazing family that remains to continue his work."