THERE’S an air of not only passion but excitement bubbling below the surface when Brendan Cullen talks about the Western Division property he oversees for a mixed group of investors.
Brendan has managed the Avenel Station aggregation, consisting of 153,800 hectares (380,000 acres) and producing wool and beef, north of Broken Hill, since 2008.
He grew up in the area, so is proud to see the country’s potential being realised.
Not all the seasons in that time have been good ones, but conditions did turn in January this year – bringing welcome flooding – and the company has continued to kick financial goals regardless of the weather.
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One of the region’s newest aggregations, Avenel Station is owned by a tight and diverse group of shareholders.
Trading as Avenel Station Pty Ltd, the company was established in the mid 2000s by Moama farmer, Geoff Allan, and the late Ken Catlow, managing director of commercial print business, PMP Limited and News Limited director.
According to Brendan, Geoff hatched the business proposition, when he discovered Avenel Station offered for sale in 2006-07.
“Geoff worked in the region in his young years and was aware of the potential this country offered, so when Avenel Station came on the market, he saw an opportunity and acted,” he said.
“Working with Ken, the two personally approached potential investors for the project and Avenel Station was their first purchase in 2008.”
While many properties are owned by small private companies, not all have proven as successful as Avenel Pty Ltd, said Brendan, who with his wife, Jacinta, and family live on “Avenel”.
“The management of Avenel Station is based on a fairly unique business model in the agricultural sector, which despite recent droughts, has managed to continue to forge ahead and expand,” he said.
“In the past seven years the company has gone through drought and still been able to buy neighbouring stations, such as ‘Mt Westwood’ in 2011.”
Avenel Station ranges from sand hills to red loam soil to finer “gibba” (stoney) country, along with some clay-based soils on the alluvial plains along the four water courses which cut across the property – Flood’s Creek, Teilta Creek, Honeymoon Creek, and the “Joulnie” water course – which produce Mitchell grass flats and some salt bush country.
The holding is currently running 10,000 Merino breeding ewes and 500 Angus and Angus/Hereford breeders, which are managed by Brendan and his offsider, Cal Moses, who lives on Mt Westwood Station with his wife, Pixie, and two young daughters.
The business is gradually growing – seasons permitting – and this year’s wool clip from the main shearing in April was the biggest so far with 17,460 sheep shorn to produce 506 bales of 20- to 22-micron wool.
The holding’s average fleece weight is 5.5 kilograms for weaners and grown sheep, which according to Brendan is an average result for the area.
Brendan divides his time between the paddock and office, and compiles weekly reports for Geoff, the company’s chief executive officer, who in turn sends out monthly newsletters to all investors which include details and photos relating to what’s been happening at Avenel Station.
“This means from day one, the company has a gazetted history of the enterprise, which is compiled into annual books,” Brendan said.
“What’s being done here is based on a fairly unique business model in the rural sector.”
Brendan said some investors took a “hands-on role” helping with jobs throughout the year – mainly those involving the cattle.
The company also runs an annual open day for its investors, usually held during the July school holidays, where both Geoff and Brendan give talks about developments through the year and run through any improvements.
“The investors also join a tag-along tour across the property to a look at any significant new developments,” Brendan said.
The board holds quarterly meetings, with one at “Avenel”, while the annual general meeting was held in Echuca on neutral ground.
Brendan said the company’s priorities were: family, stock, land preservation and investors.
“The business model works – and the company has always paid it’s dividend, with only one drought year down slightly but made up for the following year.”
Pride in professional progression for Brendan
BRENDAN Cullen is a born and bred Broken Hill local, who has spent most of his life working in the region.
Growing up on Mt Westwood Station, now part of the Avenel Station aggregation, Brendan has a deep understanding of the country he is responsible for – having seen first hand the impact of drought, floods and the growing problem of wild dogs and pigs.
Driving along the dingo fence, which forms the western boundary of “Avenel”, Brendan points out a couple of box tree swamps which now have water in them – the first time in 15 to 20 years following good January rain which produced flooding.
The country now carries low levels of dogs, foxes and feral cats thanks to aerial baiting and trapping programs which have boosted native populations of birds, such as bush turkeys, and marsupials, including bettongs, or rat kangaroos.
Brendan’s grandparents, Des and Pat Cullen, established the family in the district in 1950, taking up Floods Creek Station after droving a flock of Merinos from a station between Broken Hill and Wentworth.
The Cullens rode high on the sheep’s back during the 1950s, using their wool cheques to later buy neighbouring Mt Westwood Station in 1970, and then Joulnie Station.
A wool classer by trade, Brendan worked as a bulk classer for Elders in Adelaide and later as a trainee wool buyer for Michell Wool.
He also spent time working as a station hand on many of the properties north of Broken Hill, including Pine Ridge, Border Downs and Quinyambie Stations, while along with wife, Jacinta, whose background is in wool and textile marketing, they both also spent time working as rural contractors on many surrounding stations.
When the opportunity arose Brendan applied for the manager’s position at Avenel Station in 2008 and when told of his success was “rapt and excited”.
“I looked at it as starting a new life – I felt like I had to reinvent myself because I wasn’t working for the family anymore,” he said.
Brendan takes great pride in the way the Avenel Station aggregation is progressing, and his part in that success.
“Ultimately I’m accountable to the ‘Avenel’ board, but also to myself – I have to be on the money which means I put a lot of pressure on myself but I live what I do and I love my job,” he said.
