Getting to know the people in the wool industry and meeting the queen were some of the highlights of David Morgan's career.
Mr Morgan was recently awarded an Order of Australia for his services to the wool industry.
His interest in agriculture started at a young age when he would accompany his father, a stock and station agent, to country sheep sales.
He went to Dookie College to study a Diploma of Agriculture and choose wool as an extra course on the curriculum.
From there, he joined the Australian Estates Company in 1954 as a junior wool valuer, before the company sent him away with a shearing contractor to work as a roustabout.
"He was an exceptional gentleman, the late Arthur Turner, to handle a shearing team of 10 to 12 shearers with roustabouts," he said.
"That taught me a lot."
After about three years he got onto the showfloor as a junior valuer and began penciling for the senior personnel.
"In those days there was no testing of wool, it was all visual appraisal," he said.
"Wool brokers appraised the wool to give woolgrowers some idea of its value."
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He was married in 1954 and had seven children with his wife, Anne.
In 1968, he was sent to Portland as chief wool valuer.
"That was a great five years," he said.
"During that time we had a visit from the Queen and I was chosen to escort her onto the showfloor and I had to show her a line-up of superfine wool in bales, right through to Lincoln wool."
He returned to Melbourne in 1973, around the time that micron testing was introduced.
Many of the results were surprising, he said.
"As the boss, I said to our staff that we should check all the microns to make sure they compared visually to the look of the wool," he said.
"Eventually, you just accepted the result."
Australian Estates was then sold to Colonial Sugar, but Mr Morgan was offered a job with Dalgety in 1981 and decided to accept.
He worked as the chief wool valuer for Victoria and would be chief wool auctioneer until 1998.
Working as an auctioneer was rewarding but was also stressful, he said.
"Every lot that you sell you try to get the best price for the grower, that was my philosophy," he said.
"It's pretty hard as an auctioneer to get up there, people tell you it's well sold and it's as well as given away."
He retired in 1998 and formed his own company working as a consultant for what was then Wesfarmers.
Mr Morgan was attending wool sales right up until the outbreak of the coronavirus.
"I'll be 89 in October, and when I can get to a wool sale I'll be there," he said.
He has continued to class flocks and select rams for people too, with clients in the Wimmera and Gippsland.
"I was away classing sheep in the first week of January and again a fortnight ago, selecting rams," he said.
He first visited one property in 1958 and still returns now.
"I started classing their sheep probably 50 years ago and they started breeding their own rams and their own ewes and they've established now as a stud," he said.
The people he met along the way was one of the best aspects of his career.
"What wonderful people I've met, and many are still close friends," he said.
"It's the wonderful stud breeders I've met who were so helpful giving me some of their knowledge so I could pass it onto my clients."
He said he was humbled and honoured to hear he had been nominated for an Order of Australia award.
"I got a letter three months before to say I'd been nominated and was being considered and would be awarded the medal if I wanted," he said.
"I did hesitate for a second about it, because I'm not this way inclined.
"I thought about it and somebody went to a lot of trouble... so I was grateful to them for nominating me."
He credits his wife Anne for her support throughout his career.