{"id":151949,"date":"2025-08-17T01:48:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/151949\/"},"modified":"2025-08-17T01:48:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T01:48:17","slug":"for-35-years-jacob-mingo-was-woolworths-most-dedicated-trolley-collector-from-carnarvon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/151949\/","title":{"rendered":"For 35 years, Jacob Mingo was Woolworths’ ‘most dedicated trolley collector’ from Carnarvon"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story includes the name and images of an Indigenous person who has died.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For more than three decades, people exiting the Carnarvon shopping centre were greeted with the friendly, smiling face of Jacob Mingo.<\/p>\n

Mr Mingo collected trolleys at the local Woolworths for 35 years and was once called “Australia’s most dedicated trolley collector”.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old, who lived with disability, passed away last month and is being remembered as an icon of the town and a man who brought kindness to his work every day.<\/p>\n

“He was a friendly person to everybody from all over,” his mother, Esther Mingo, said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacob Mingo and his mother, Esther. (Supplied: Mingo Family)<\/p>\n

Flags at the shire office were flown at half-mast to honour his memory.<\/p>\n

Ms Mingo said she would deeply miss her son, who always stood by her side and was “loved by everybody”.<\/p>\n

Ms Mingo is a Yindjibarndi woman who moved to Carnarvon at a young age and raised Jacob in the small town, 900km north of Perth.<\/p>\n

Local artist Trish Oullette was a close friend of Mr Mingo’s, and in 2023 won an art prize for her portrait of him.<\/p>\n

Ms Oullette said she was glad she had that painting to remember him forever.<\/p>\n

“I still expect him to walk into the office. I still expect to see him walking around the streets, pushing trolleys,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If you were feeling down and you saw Jacob and he grinned at you, all your cares just washed away.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacob Mingo and Trish Oullette formed a strong bond in Carnarvon. (ABC Pilbara: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n

A dedicated worker, a good friend<\/p>\n

Jenni Jacomelli was Mr Mingo’s manager for a decade, and “couldn’t believe it” when she heard about his passing.<\/p>\n

“Jacob was very special to me in my years there [at Woolworths],” she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Trish Oullette’s award-winning painting of Jacob Mingo. (Supplied: Trish Oullette)<\/p>\n

Ms Jacomelli said he was one of the most dedicated workers she had ever supervised.<\/p>\n

“No-one could collect trolleys like Jacob \u2014 his work ethic was unbelievable.”<\/p>\n

In 2008, Mr Mingo was nominated as Woolworths’ employee of the year, and travelled with Ms Jacomelli to Brisbane for the awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

She said she would always remember travelling cross-country with Jacob.<\/p>\n

“He was happy to see anybody and everybody, and never a harsh word would come out of his mouth,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ms Jacomelli said.<\/p>\n

Ms Oullette said she and Jacob were fast friends from the moment she arrived in Carnarvon.<\/p>\n

“He was a happy-go-lucky person who would do absolutely anything for anyone,” she said.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to miss the times we used to sit together and just paint.”<\/p>\n

Ms Mingo said her son’s hard work went beyond the shop’s car park.<\/p>\n

“He used to come home from work, he’d cook \u2026 he’d help us in the yard, he’d do everything for me,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ms Mingo said Jacob used to enjoy taking family members fishing and camping as often as he could.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacob Mingo’s dedication to collecting trolleys made him a popular man in Carnarvon. (ABC Pilbara: Rosemary Murphy)<\/p>\n

Calls for permanent memorial\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having had such a big impact on the local community, there are calls for a permanent memorial to honour Mr Mingo’s life as an “ambassador for Carnarvon”.<\/p>\n

“There’s been talk of a mural going up in town \u2014 that would be great,” Ms Jacomelli said.<\/p>\n

The Shire of Carnarvon is currently assessing council policies around memorials.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jacob will be remembered at a service on August 23. (Supplied: Trish Oullette)<\/p>\n

Ms Oullette said the best way to remember him would be to follow his example.<\/p>\n

“I would ask the people who know him to keep talking about him \u2014 don’t forget about him and keep shining his light,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

Mr Mingo will be remembered at a funeral service in Carnarvon on August 23.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this story includes the name and images of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":151950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[11341,4740,89074,89073,50,9455,58592,89075,8632,21818],"class_list":{"0":"post-151949","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-aboriginal","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-carnarvon","11":"tag-jacob-mingo","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-obituary","14":"tag-tribute","15":"tag-trolley-collector","16":"tag-wa-news","17":"tag-woolworths"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115041593986977179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}