Like many agents, who came through the Primac ranks, Geoff Birch , regards his time with Primac as something quite special. He will always cherish this period of his working career, and believes his relationships, not only with his clients, but his fellow colleagues throughout the agency game, instilled in him, a great work ethic that continued throughout life.
Here is Geoff’s Primac story line.
My Time at Primac
Primac
Rockhampton – Townsville – Theodore – Toowoomba
Geoff Birch
Rockhampton
I joined Primac Rockhampton in 1981 as a junior stock salesman when the stock office was in the Quay St premises.
Some of the staff that I can remember at that time were
Jack Wyland – Director
Tom Scanlan – Manager
Dick Graham – Head Auctioneer
Ken Hinton – Auctioneer/ Stock Sales
Alan Ferguson – Stud Stock
Bob Dunlop – Office Manager
Gordon Grace – Stock and Insurance
Patti ????? – Office Reception.
Jean ????? – Stock sales processing.
There also was a payments officer, a rural property salesman and approx. 6 other staff in the stock and merchandise operation.
The merchandise operation at the time was on the corner of Bolsover St and Archer St and managed by Barry Kane and the new, at that time, Stock office was under construction next to the merchandise shed.
I trained as an auctioneer and sold cattle at the Gracemere Saleyards and was part of the organising and despatch team for the multi agent bull sales held at Gracemere Yards until I was transferred to the Townsville branch in early 1983.
In addition to the sales at Gracemere Primac was also selling at the annual store cattle sale at the St Lawrence saleyards.
Townsville
The Townsville Staff at that time were.
Mike Harbin – Manager of the Townsville branch and Ken Glasheen – Regional Manager for the northern Primac branches.
Both Mike and I sold the cattle at the Bohle saleyards.
The merchandise branch at the time sold general merchandise as well as a lot of clothes locally, and my understanding was that they shipped a considerable amount to the northern line branches and their clients. (I was not involved in the merchandise operation).
After approx. 12 months in Townsville, I resigned from Primac to have an operation.
Rockhampton take 2
Not sure how, but Tom Scanlan (Manager at Primac Rockhampton ) found out that I was back in Rockhampton and contacted me and offered me a job at the Rockhampton branch to take over from Ken Hinton as the Auctioneer stock salesman as Ken had retired.
In the busy time there was a Prime cattle sale on Mondays for male cattle, on Wednesdays there was a Prime Female sale and each fortnight a Store cattle sale. This would drop off to the be a Monday sale for all cattle and a monthly store cattle sale depending on cattle numbers at the time. From memory I believe that Primac was the leading agent in cattle presented for sale. We got a fair bit of auctioneering practice.
During my time in Rockhampton and due to the state of the St Lawrence saleyards Primac held a store cattle sale on property at “Croydon Station” which at that time was owned by Bundaberg Sugar Co.
Some of the staff that I can remember at that time were
Jack Wyland – Director
Tom Scanlan – Manager
Dick Graham – Head Auctioneer and Stud Stock Auctioneer
Murray Anderson – Trainee Auctioneer/ Stock Sales
Alan Ferguson and then Ian Mc Kenzie – Stud Stock.
Bob Dunlop – Office Manager
Gordon Grace – Insurance
In Dec 1985 I was transferred to Theodore to replace Neil Donaldson as Neil was transferred to manage the Eidsvold branch.
Morrie Gralow was the Branch manager and we had one office staff member, Karen ??
From memory I think I was notified of my transfer on a Wednesday and Dick Graham resigned on the Friday to start his own business.
As a result of this I was travelling from Theodore to Gracemere for the Prime and store cattle sales to sell the cattle and then return to Theodore.
This continued until Peter Brazier was transferred from Dalby to head up the Stock team.
I am not sure when but Steve Burnett had joined the Rockhampton team prior to all of this occurring.
Theodore
Theodore branch sold most of the cattle from their clients either at the Wandoan or Rockhampton saleyards both store and fat cattle as the Primac saleyards were not safe to be used. After a period of time Morrie had discussions with Elders that had the Nipan Saleyards and we started to have joint sales at these yards.
The merchandise business was very small at Theodore at the time, consisted mainly of cattle growth promotants and a small amount of horse and chook food. I was given the opportunity and to build the merchandise business and with guidance and assistance form the Brisbane store and Wayne Fischer we were able to increase sale to the extent that a new Shed and 2nd hand forklift was ultimately supplied to service the increased clientele.
I enjoyed my time at Primac and due to that a considerable amount of the annual Bull sales were held at Gracemere I go to meet the staff from other Primac branches as well as other agencies that came to the sales.
Of note at the time was that when I was the new kid on the block, most of the other older and experienced agents from the different companies offered guidance and assistance which was greatly appreciated.
Toowoomba
After a stint in other jobs in other rural supply companies I rejoined Primac in Toowoomba at the Vet Rural operation in 1998.
Nev Holden was the manager and I knew Nev from when we both worked for different companies in the Seed supply industry.
At that time there was an Elders and a Primac branch in Toowoomba.
When the takeover happened and it looked like the Primac and Primac Elders branches in Toowoomba were going to be amalgamated, Nev encouraged me to apply for a job that was going with Performance Feeds marketing Anipro (Performance Feeds at that time was a joint venture company between Primac and XF enterprises from the US).
I applied and was successful in my application.
Geoff Birch March 2025
