Company: Mactaggarts
Date Opened:
First Manager:
Miles Branch history has been contributed to by these Primac Gurus:
Greg Jacobsen, John Groves
If you have information or photos to contribute to the Miles Branch Timeline / History please use the form at the bottom of this page to submit it. All contributions are appreciated and will be acknowledged.
An interesting article on long standing Mactaggarts manager at Miles, Mr. Frank Gerkow. Article as displayed in the Miles Historical Village agents and printers exhibit. Photo supplied by Mr Barry Dixon
1961 Mactaggarts
Advertisement of forthcoming Fat Cattle Sale at Condamine 8th September 1961.
As displayed in the Miles Historical Village agents and printers exhibit. Photo supplied by Mr Barry Dixon
1964 Mactaggarts
As displayed in the Miles Historical Village agents and printers exhibit. Miles Weaner sale report 25th November 1964. Photo supplied by Mr Barry Dixon
1968 Mactaggarts
Ross Tucker, Branch Manager
1969 Mactaggarts
Ross Tucker, Branch Manager
1973 Mactaggarts
Newspaper report on a successful weaner sale at Miles, conducted by Mactaggarts PPCA. 8th November 1973.
Article appears in the Miles Historical Village, Agents and Printers building. Courtesy of Barry Dixon
1975 Primaries Mactaggarts Co – Operative Assoc LTD
Allan Gillespie, Branch Manager
1985
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager. (Greg replaced Lionel Arthur in early 1985. Lionel resigned from Primac and relocated to Charleville)
Gary Ward, Stock Sales / Merchandise Ian Philp, Merchandise
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts
John Henry, Commission Property Salesman
Good morning Gurus. What about livestock sale by description. I found this newspaper clipping of the very first Primac teleauction sale. Remember John Higgins flying around the state with his TV crew. The first sale was held on the 7th March 1985. I can still remember John Erbacher doing a superb job, running the auction from the Channel 10 studios. In Miles we had a bidding station at the Queensland Hotel. Miles was one of the most western bidding stations, as further west only had one TV channel at the time, the good old ABC. The photo in the newspaper clipping shows Gary Ward ( Primac Miles) on the phone, with Fred Morgan Primac manager from Mitchell and client Keith Coward. Keith had just purchased a property at Jackson, and used the teleauction sale to partly stock the property. Keith and his wife Shirley and family, went on to become long term and loyal clients of the Miles branch. There is a typo in the newspaper clipping. It says there were just 180 head offered in the sale, and Miles clients purchased 220 head. (That doesn’t add up) I reckon there may have been 1180 or maybe 1800 head in the sale, some other Guru may still have that information. Any way this was one of the first examples of sale by description, Elders was also dabbling with a video auction as well at the time, but pretty shore Primac got the jump on them.
Facebook post courtesy of Greg Jacobsen 26th February 2021
1986
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager.
Gary Ward, Stock Sales / Merchandise Ian Philp, Merchandise
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts
John Henry, Commission Property Salesman
1987
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager.
Brendan Twidale, Livestoick Sales
Ray Gray, Merchandise
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts
1988
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager.
Brendan Twidale, Livestock Sales
Ray Gray, Merchandise
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts
1989
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager.
Brendan Twidale, Livestock Sales. Brendan departed Miles in January 1989 replaced by Ross Brimblecombe Ross Brimblecombe Livestock Sales
Ray Gray, Merchandise Jason McNulty, Trainee Merchandise/Livestock Justin Boland Merchandise & Agronomy Justin transferred from Dalby 23rd October 1989
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts
The Primac Miles team in 1989 included, Greg Jacobsen, Peter Fleming (Chinchilla) Ross Brimblecombe, Ray Gray, Jason McNulty & Melody Rynne. Newspaper ad courtesy of Greg Jacobsen
1990
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager. Ross Brimblecombe Livestock Sales/ Auctioneer Jason McNulty, Trainee Merchandise/Livestock Justin Boland Merchandise & Agronomy
Melody Rynne, Office/Accounts Melody resigned in 1990, Sue Mason commenced on 8th May 1990 Sue Mason Office/Accounts
1991
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager. Ross Brimblecombe Livestock Sales/ Auctioneer Jason McNulty Merchandise/Livestock Jason left in 1991 replaced by Shane McCullough Shane McCullough Merchandise & Agronomy Ian Jackson Merchandise Sue Mason Office/Accounts
1992
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager. Ross Brimblecombe Livestock Sales/ Auctioneer Jason McNulty Merchandise/Livestock Jason left in 1991 replaced by Shane McCullough Shane McCullough Merchandise & Agronomy Sue Mason Office/Accounts
1993
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager
Jason Rose, Stock Sales / Auctioneer (New start with the company from private agency NSW hired by Norm Jenner & Greg Jacobsen)
Charlie Mort, Stock Sales (Transferred IN from Stock Sales Rockhampton Branch)
Shane McCullough, Merchandise & Agronomy Ian Jackson, Merchandise (Ian commenced 20th July 1993)
Sue Mason Office / Accounts Sue left Miles in 1993, Peta Stevens commenced as Sue’s replacement in May 1993 Peta Stevens Office/Accounts
Primac Guru, Jason Rose, hoisting the flag 
Enterprising Primac Gurus, Ian Jackson and Jason Rose, felt the need ( after a couple of beers and some prompting, I’m sure) to fly the flag after a big weekend moving 
Another hardworking Primac Guru, in Peta Stevens, trying to make sense of untangling a mass of computer cables. As always she prevailed in the end.
Not quite but it felt good at the time!
Date: 11th September 1993
The Primac business in the Miles branch had grown exponentially, over the previous few years, with solid growth in livestock market share, but more particularly our merchandise division, was showing tremendous growth in turnover and profitability, right through the early 1990’s. During that time, innovative farmers were expanding into dryland cotton right across the fertile brigalow, belah country along the Condamine River flood plains. Through the good work, by our agronomy team, dedication and energy by our branch staff and key merchandise people, we at Primac took advantage of this growth, and were rewarded an increase in our turnover.
Previously our office had limited facilities to cater for this growth. Our bulk merchandise store was located separately from our office, and logistically it was proving inadequate. By mid-1993, Primac management had warmed to the idea, of identifying new premises, so a search commenced around the town for something suitable.
About that same time, the management of our main competitor, Elders, were looking to downsize and exit the lease on their building. Why, I am not sure, other than their merchandise business was in decline, and presumably management were focused on consolidation of their branches.
This however, presented us with the perfect scenario, and a deal with the landlords of our respective buildings was struck, that Primac would move into the larger premises, and Elders would in turn occupy our much smaller premises.
So it was, on the weekend of 11th & 12th of September 1993, we moved our office equipment, and furnishings up the main street, being Murilla Street, mostly using bag trolleys and forklift, whilst the Elders team did the same using Slessars Lane at the rear of both offices.
The new building was a purpose built car dealership in an earlier life, and had heaps of showroom space, and storage area at the rear. With pallet racking and room to move, made our job so much easier, and certainly more professional, and the gains to our business were immediate.
At the end of the Saturday, and presumably after a few hard earned beers, Jason Rose and Ian Jackson, were intent on flying the Primac flag on top of the building. Was it a corporate takeover, not really but it felt “bloody” great to my staff and I to have a perceived win over our competitor.
A couple of memorable moments came out of that weekend that I immediately recall about the move.
Firstly, when doing a final check of the old Primac office, I thought I would check inside the manhole in the ceiling of the Managers office. Why, I have no idea, but it was going to be the last opportunity. I found a crate stashed within an arm’s length of the manhole. Covered in years of dust, I was able to get the box down, out of the ceiling, and found a treasure of old pamphlets, handbooks and wartime booklets. They highlighted in clear pictorial form, how to identify Japanese aircraft, boats, and arms, including field guns and rifles.
Presumably during the war years, this information must have been distributed to civil defense units across the country, in preparation for a Japanese invasion. Thankfully that never happened, apart from bombing raids on Darwin and across the north of the country.
I have no recollection what ever happened to this treasure trove, thinking that I may have passed it onto the museum at the time. Unfortunately, I don’t recall seeing it on display at the museum, on subsequent visits.
The second thing that sticks in my mind, is that the very last item we moved to the new office was our safe. We wheeled it up the street and in behind the counter of the new office, but decided to leave it there, until we cleared a space in the store room, to secure it into a permanent position.
I am pretty sure we had a cattle sale the next day at Chinchilla, and drafting took priority on the Sunday afternoon. Needless to say the safe remained in public view longer than it should have, and a couple of mornings later when arriving at work, I discovered the safe was missing, along with the bag trolley.
Upon investigation, a perp, or perps climbed onto the roof and removed a skylight, swung down into the showroom, carefully unbolted the rear sliding door, and brazenly wheeled the safe down the back lane, over the train crossing and down to the public carpark adjacent to the saleyards. From there the tracks disappeared, presumably having loaded the safe onto a trailer or ute.
Eventually the Police found the safe, abandoned, somewhere in the Lockyer Valley, near Gatton, with the door cut off and the contents gone. I checked my work diary from the time and there was some $500 in cash and approx. $17,000 in cheques went missing. We traced most of the cheques but lost the cash. Unfortunately there was no trace of the bag trolley.
The fete of the iconic building didn’t last much longer, however, it was completely razed by fire a few years after I was transferred to Goondiwindi, and remains a vacant lot today.
I thought Primac Gurus may be interested in this little chapter. Even though it was a timely win for team Primac, ultimately just a few short years later, the red team prevailed it seems. If you can’t beat em, buy em? Facebook article courtesy of Greg Jacobsen 21st March 2021
Chinchilla News Feature November 1993 
Chinchilla News Feature November 1993
1994
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager
Jason Rose, Stock Sales / Auctioneer
Charlie Mort, Stock Sales (Charlie took 6 months leave of absence to complete his diploma
in animal nutrition at Gatton College. He returned in January 1995 to Toowoomba Branch)
Shane McCullough Merchandise Manager Ian Jackson Merchandise Colin Lye Agronomist
Peta Stevens, Office / Accounts
1995
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager
Jason Rose, Stock Sales / Auctioneer (Transferred OUT to Goondiwindi Branch in the same role to replace Bob Jakins who went west) Shane McCullough Merchandise Manager (During 1995 Shane successfully transitioned from a merchandise role, to a role in livestock, and quickly became a competent salesman and auctioneer)
Tommy Hunt, Merch Manager (Transferred IN from Merch Sales position at Meandarra Branch) Kelly Gray Merchandise George Newton, Merchandise Colin Lye Agronomist Julie Latcham, Office / Accounts Hugh Robinson Property Sales
1996
Greg Jacobsen, Branch Manager
Shane McCullough Stock Sales/ Auctioneer
Tommy Hunt, Merchandise Manager ( Tom Hunt left Miles during 1996, replaced by Malcolm Kenny from 15th October 1996) Malcolm Kenny Merchandise Manager George Newton, Merchandise Peta Stevens, Office / Accounts ( during 1996, Peta Stevens resigned and replaced by Julie Latcham) Julie Latcham Office/Accounts
A photo from QCL at the fortnightly Miles Sale I think from memory in the background Jack Sprott weaners from Drillham. An annual feature Shorthorn commercial show/sale was also held that Greg Jacobsen implemented that ran for years.Pictured Shane McCulloch Doug Ramke Ross Palmer Julie Sheehan as we “merged” the two very strong teams of Primac and Elders together.
Facebook post by Julie Sheehan (Latcham) 20th December 2020
*Last Updated 02/07/2021 SGT
Know more about the Miles Branch history, timeline and people? Please use the form below to add too or edit this page information.
