I joined the Primac staff , January 1980 in Rockhampton, which included Jack Wyland, Tom Scanlon (Manager), Dick Graham, Kenny Hinton, Alan Ferguson (Stud Stock), Gordon Grace, to mention a few of the staff.
I joined the Primac staff , January 1980 in Rockhampton, which included Jack Wyland, Tom Scanlon (Manager), Dick Graham, Kenny Hinton, Alan Ferguson (Stud Stock), Gordon Grace, to mention a few of the staff.
I spent 12 months or a Full Bull Sale Season so, I got to know the Stud Stock team from Brisbane and a lot the Primac staff from the branches who frequented the Bull Sales. Being the youngest member of the team, I was always the one given the job of entertaining visiting Bull buying clients and staff after the sales. I am not sure how I got home most nights or how I turned up on time the next morning out at Gracemere Sales Yards to do it all again for weeks on end.
January 1981 saw me transfer to Primac Blackall with a new wife and all my worldly possessions in a half I C train wagon. Richard Handley was Manager, a very young Mark Hay (Merchandise). Bill Lewis was in (Barcaldine), George Vinson (Longreach), Ernie Harriman (Aramac), Timmy Clifford (Winton), Gary Baker ( Charleville), Tony Short (Insurance Longreach).
In 1981 there were about 6 Stock & Station Agencies in Blackall, AML&F, Australian Estates, Elders, Farmers Grazcos, Dalgety Winchcombe, Primac and the town held Cattle Sales every Friday. Blackall was on a train loop line which meant wagons would be dropped off at Yalleroi, in route to Longreach loading the cattle from the Longreach Sales first. The train would break on its return trip and pick up the cattle from the Blackall Sales, which could be anytime from 2 pm in the afternoon to 12 midnight and beyond depending on Cattle numbers and buyer destinations, so after the sale and with all prices rung through to Clients, the stock salesmen from all the companies would meet at the Tattersalls(Tatts) and drink and tell lies, until the phone call came through to say the train was coming to be loaded. It is still beyond me, how the wagons got loaded with correct numbers and no one got killed in the process at that hour of the night, we used to work hard and play even harder.
1982 saw a changing of the guard in Blackall Mark Hay Left, Kent Ward moved from Aramac to merchandise position, later in the year Richard transferred to Dalby, replaced by Ken Telford.
1983 saw us transferred to a position of a stock salesman working out of 3 branches Wandoan, Taroom and Theodore. At the time Lee Gould and Geoff Baker were in Wandoan, Jamie Long & Steve Truman in Taroom and Morrie Gralow in Theodore. We lived in Taroom for about 8 months before transferring full time to Theodore.
As luck had it the only available rental house in the town was right across the road from the only Pub in town, (by this stage of his career Morrie was a tea-totaler), no Primac client drank alone and everyone knew where I lived. I’ll keep those stories for another day.
I left the agents in early 1986 and I was somehow still married, no thanks to a lot of clients & staff who went on and became some of my family’s closest friends. As all Primac Gurus “Know the Older we get, the Better we were.” I hope I haven’t bored you too much and have thrown in a few names, which may spark some memories of the good old days and how much fun being an agent used to be.
Last updated 3rd January 2021
