FROM a cattle station near Longreach to rubbing shoulders with Kerry Packer, John McGrath has packed a lot into life.

After leaving school and trying his hand at several jobs, Mr McGrath landed a job working in television in Townsville.

"It was my lucky break,” he said.

"And started a 40-year long career.”

Starting out as a technician, Mr McGrath worked his way way up the showbiz chain, through stints in Newcastle, Brisbane, Sydney and finally Melbourne, where in the late 1980s he became program manager at GTV9.

"Kerry Packer was the boss then and I guess I met him on half a dozen occasions in my time there,” he said.

"I was in charge of sourcing material for Channel 9 in Melbourne - everything from overseas programs and movies to commissioning local productions.

"We looked after Hey Hey It's Saturday, New Faces, Sale of the Century and many others.

"I absolutely loved, it was an exciting job with always something new happening.”

In the end it was a timely dismissal that prompted Mr McGrath and his family to make the move north, back to Queensland.

"I started my own lawn-mowing business on the Sunshine Coast before a mate suggested an interesting idea,” Mr McGrath said.

"He'd read that the French used to import their culinary snails from England.

"So I became Queensland's first snail farmer, all started by an idea and a bucket of snails from my mate's garden.”

Mr McGrath said he went on to supply snails to restaurants across southeast Queensland, harvesting thousands of the tiny gastropods.

Today Mr McGrath is a familiar sight behind the front desk for the Warwick RSL Memorial Club.

"We moved to Warwick in 2005,” he said.

"Looking to escape the city life.

"After the snail venture I went back into television, taking Channel 9's Brisbane news to the highest rating in the country.

"I also made a very popular State of Origin advertisement, a parody of the Antz Pantz ad, that helped the Origin rate the highest it ever had.”

Mr McGrath said he loved the peace and quiet of Warwick.

"It has a history you can see and touch,” he said.

"It's got those country roots with all the mod cons.”