Keith “Trapper” Woodman

A Goulburn Icon

Keith Woodman was born in Goulburn in 1949, a younger brother to his sister Kathy. He learned rabbit trapping and spud picking at a young age, thereby helping him to develop a strong work ethic.

Keith Woodman

TRAPPER, THE INSPIRING STORY OF A SELF-MADE MAN tells of a driven man who believed totally in the idiom: Never Say Never. Keith Woodman was, by his own account, an average school student who grew up in Wyatt Street, Goulburn, an area that taught young kids to be tough.

He adored his mother, Ann, but tolerated a distant and uncomfortable relationship with his father, Bill, who was rarely at home.  Yet young Trapper joined Bill on weekends rabbit trapping around the Goulburn area, eking out a living to help his mother; this young boy’s greatest satisfaction was buying her a television set from his earnings.

It was here that junior Trapper learned life-long lessons, forced to sleep out in all conditions picking up potatoes around nearby towns such as Robertson and Bannister to supplement his rabbit trapping earnings. Trapper learned there was no substitute for hard work; failure was a word missing from his dictionary of life.

From the time he accepted an apprenticeship as a motor mechanic to his current status as owner of two of the most successful bakery businesses in New South Wales, Trapper threw himself in at the deep end, striving tirelessly to make his ventures work.

Many times he stood on the edge of a precipice, only to work his way back, not only to survive but to carve out yet another successful business project.

Trapper has a deep-rooted love and admiration of his three children, John, Jeanette and Rachel, who have each joined him for part or all of his motel and bakery ventures. He at one time or another has bought and invested in rural properties, dabbled successfully in motels, and concurrently built his renowned bakery at Goulburn. He ventured a little further afield with the purchase of the Braidwood Bakery, all the time spreading the name of Trappers.

He survived cancer, fought the Goulburn Council over the building of his “wall” outside Trappers Bakery of Goulburn and, later, even joined them as a councillor.

The journey has been elevating, exciting, depressing, captivating, gloomy, exhilarating, but never, never boring. IT WAS, AND STILL IS, LIFE IN THE FAST LANE.

Trappers Bakery