It’s hard to believe 30 years has passed since stock agent mates Malcolm Brady and Ian Runciman formed the Swan Hill stock agency business Brady & Runciman.
Both were aged in their late 20s at the time, playing football at bush club, Ultima, where they were also honing their skills in the social and cultural aspects of life: organizing bus trips away, running raffles and lassoing mice when the various plagues swept the Mallee.
Both were also local lads, from large families and with plenty of cousins, and their mentor/boss, who gave them each a start in the agency game, was respected Swan Hill private agent Peter Coady of Lewis Coady (without the Lewis).
Malcolm or “Curl” as he is better known was the inspirator of the newly formed outfit while Runci, according to Runci - the counterbalance to Mal’s enthusiasm – akin to a good working dog, following up behind, poking a nose in every corner to round up all the straggler payments.
It was a lot of hard work, Ian Runciman said. “Stock weren’t making heaps of money, the seasons were in and out and while Mal had a reasonable sheep business in the Mallee, and I a solid cattle following on the Murraydale Flats we quickly recognised we needed to cross the River, into western NSW Merino sheep country, to make it all work”.
Malcolm according to Runci took up that challenge with august which he suspects ended his first marriage. “He was away days on end, week after week, returning only for markets which were held weekly in rotation - sheep one week, cattle the next – and then he'd be off again,” he said.
“He loved it up there and provided a regular service seldom offered by the woolbrokers.” Malcolm was also one of the first agents in Swan Hill to use a mobile phone – the big and heavy bag phones – and on occasions when station owners couldn’t contact the regular agents some would ring Malcolm for assistance and/or advice, and that gained him their confidence and that helped grow the business.
Malcolm Brady was also seen as the inspiration (or the evil) behind the wildfire spread of the Damara and Dorper sheep breeds through the back country during the 990’s when times were tough for wool.
While many wool purists might still prefer to see both Malcolm and his wool-shedding sheep eradicated, the realists, who were slowly going broke at the time, leapt at the opportunity to transform their enterprises into profitable businesses, without shearers, chemicals and the constant threat of flystrike.
And, for those who moved early on Malcolm’s idea they made lots of money as Dorper breeding stock became highly sought-after, highly valuable and highly productive. The Brady & Runciman business was expanded in 1998 when they rekindled their association with Peter Coady, forming BR&C Agents. Then in 2002 they welcomed Elders VP auctioneer, Joe O’Reilly and then John Sawyer, Elders, as partners injecting youth to further drive the business.
Cheree Brown joined the B&R outfit when staff numbered only four, and with the team now approaching 40, with offices located in Swan Hill, Barham and Mildura, she said they still work well (and play hard) as a team together.
The clientele are spread over a wide area: stretching from Barham, NSW to Cunnamulla, Qld, west to the SA-border and throughout the Mallee, Mildura, Sea Lake to Kerang.
About the time Peter Coady exited the business in 2007, Malcolm, Ian and their partners sold a 49pc-share of the BR&C Agents business to ASX-listed, Ruralco Holdings Limited, which has an interest in 40 agri-business outfits across its network. While Ian Runciman called it quits in 2012 Malcolm Brady has batted on and will retire this weekend in a move that coincides with the opening of a new BRC Agents office on Karinie Street.
