Queensland icons added to Business Leaders' Hall of Fame Bikini pioneer honoured at awards 93-year-old Gold Coast bikini pioneer Paula Stafford OAM is inducted into the Queensland Business Leaders' Hall of Fame, saying she never saw "anything indecent" about the bikini. The woman who introduced the bikini to Australia is among six Queensland business figures added to the Queensland Business Leaders' Hall of Fame on Thursday night. International fashion designer Paula Stafford OAM bought the bikini - first created by French engineer Louis Reard - to the Gold Coast in the 1950s and created an immediate identity for the Gold Coast. "My question would be 'Why Paula Stafford?'," the 93-year-old said, speaking just before the awards. Bikini pioneer Paula Stafford (far right). Photo: Simon O'Brien I enjoyed what I was doing. I didn't find it hard at all. It was a joy to me. This award is very special in my mind and I will endeavour to do it justice. Ms Stafford began her business literally on the beach after a woman asked where she bought the outfit - a beach coat covering a two-piece swimsuit - she was wearing. She turned that single moment into a decades-long fashion career, culminating in an international brand supplying more than 400 stores and a chain of Paula Stafford stores. Even today Ms Stafford still sews, she admits. Also added to the list of influential business leaders were the Brett family - which started the long-running timber and hardware dynasty - pioneering Australian filmmaker Charles Chauvel, influential milk producers QUF, the Queensland Country Women's Association and regional industry company Mackay Sugar Limited. The Hall of Fame dinner at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre was hosted by Queensland Governor Penelope Wensley. Mr Chauvel, born on the Darling Downs, made influential films using the rich colour of regional Australia and offered a start to fledgling stars like Errol Flynn and Chips Rafferty. His films included Forty Thousand Horsemen (1940), The Rats of Tobruk (1943), and the brooding indigenous love affair Jedda (1955), the first Australian film at Cannes Film Festival. QUT Professor Stuart Cunningham said Chauvel could be considered the Baz Luhrmann of his generation . He could be called the Baz Luhrmann of early Australian cinema, because his films were melodramatic and controversial, but he really did want to show Australia and its talent and themes in a strong light. The Bretts family hardware business began as a sawmilling firm providing the timber for Queensland homes after World War I, eventually building Bretts Wharf to import timber. Bretts Hardwares became iconic Queensland businesses, before the more recent hardware wars between Bunnings and Masters superstores and the company scaled back. Mackay Sugar Ltd chairman Andrew Cappello said he was chuffed such a prestigious award had been given to the sugar industry, saying agriculture was often downplayed at awards. "It is an extreme honour for Mackay Sugar to be inducted, but also for the sugar industry as a whole and the agricultural industry," he said. QCWA state president Jennie Hill said while most people were more used to hearing of the organisation's community work, it was a business that has thrived since 1922. We have done a good job in our 90-year history of hiding our light under a bushell. Milk producers, QUF, formed when milk producers Peters and Pauls merged in 1960, eventually to be bought by Parmalat in 1998. Parmalat general manager Rod Walden said induction to the Hall of Fame was a great honour for the company which in 1948 was selling milk to Australians in square bottles with foil caps. "We are very proud of our heritage," Mr Walden said.