Chris and Deb Agnew were chuffed when they were told Robert Bolton would sell their sheep flock dispersed at the Bendigo saleyards recently.
The trio go back a long time, with Mr Bolton, another who had recently retired from the industry, a life long friend and former colleague of the Agnews from the Dalgety and Wesfarmers days in agency.
Having sold their Glenhope property, Nungarra, Mr Agnew recalled when he started in agency with Dalgety in Horsham in 1972, spending nine months in merchandise before becoming a livestock booking clerk for the late Jeff Harfield, at all sales.
In 1974, after attending an auctioneers course at Newmarket, he began to sell at a raft of Wimmera and Mallee centres, including sales held at Edenhope, Natimuk, Goroke, Minyip, Marnoo, Warracknabeal, Ouyen, Yelta and Horsham, and what was also the final store sheep sale held at Rainbow.
Mr Agnew also sold at a host of clearance sales which meant by the age of 20 he was entrusted with a company car, a big achievement back in those days.
In 1978, he accepted the role of branch manager at St Arnaud where he made many good friends and spent 12 years working with Dick Butters as his right-hand man.
Then during what was a hectic period for agency mergers and amalgamations, in 1989 he was seconded to complete a project for the Dalgety Board, which meant living for eight months in Flinders Lane in Melbourne.
By 1990, he was appointed branch manager at Horsham for 18 months, after which he was offered the role of area manager for Northern Victoria and the Riverina, based in Bendigo.
At this time, Wesfarmers were taking over the Dalgety business which proved an enormous change and challenge.
He was appointed to the panel of six people to oversee the accounting merger of east and west which resulted in a totally new system being developed.
This took 18 months, which required weekly trips to Sydney and numerous telephone conferences.
He also assisted in its roll-out to all staff.
Mr Agnew was also a great believer in the concept of locally-owned and operated franchises and he instigated the conversion of many company-owned branches to franchises, some of which included Kerang, St Arnaud, Finley and Kyneton.
He also helped plan, expand and redevelop the offices at Mildura and Swan Hill and designed and oversaw the build of the Landmark office at Bendigo, which opened in 1994 and proved to be a very busy period of expansion for the whole industry.
The Agnews purchased Nungarra at auction in October 1999 and they kick started its operation with wethers and first-cross ewes and a small herd of about 80 Angus cows.
After two tough years, the cows and the wethers were sold when they learnt their farm was more suited to sheep grazing than cattle although opportunity purchasing of heifers was done when seasons allowed.
Although advising clients for many years, Mr Agnew said he learnt very quickly that farms are great consumers of money and he said he will never forget an old client ringing him one day with some sound advice.
“He said, ‘Chris, you will go through periods of ‘what the bloody hell am I doing here’ more than once but never give up!’” he said
“No truer words or advice has ever been passed on to me.”
In their years on Nungarra, the Agnews established a small Warmblood stud where they have sold horses to most states in Australia, and currently have two Nungarra bred horses included in national or state training squads.
After 20 years at Nungarra, retirement was in their minds and this was hastened by a property of about 50 acres within the town boundary of Warrnambool becoming available for sale.
They have since purchased this property, after selling Nungarra, and plan to move there in mid-January.
Also, after 38 years as a stipendiary steward with Racing Victoria, Mr Agnew has retired from this role as well.
