In an era when media reports are focusing on the increasing unlikelihood that our youth will ever own their own home in our cities, one bush boy has made the first steps towards staking out his own piece of dirt.
At the tender age of 24, Hughenden’s Tom Delahunty has outlined a plan to buy out his uncle and be a landowner within 10 to 15 years.
“You’ve got to start somewhere,” was Tom’s philosophy. “You’re better off doing it now before land gets ridiculously dear.”
Underlining the point, the 7181ha Breakfast Creek block he is taking up south of Hughenden has nearly quadrupled in value since his father Colin and his uncle John Delahunty split their partnership in 1999.
Trading is Tom’s pathway to his dream – the type of animal depends on the price at the time – and it’s a method he’s seen his parents Colin and Denise use regularly and is comfortable with.
He expects to use his home block as a depot where he can educate young cattle before finding agistment for them.
Up until now, Tom has been building up experience and finances as a contract musterer, packing up his truck and dogs and gear and working at places as variable as Gleeson, north of Cloncurry, Cape Crawford and Walhallow on the Barkly Tableland, at Charters Towers, and south to South Galway near Windorah and Marqua on the Plenty Highway.
He always wanted to come back to home territory though, and work towards putting the original Rockwood station back together again, and said it was listening to his elders that gave him the knowledge and the confidence to make a start.
“I’ve talked to a lot of older people,” he said. “They are in tune with it all.”
“They” include the men behind KLR Marketing, and his parents, who Tom said always advised him to do something he enjoyed, as opposed to getting a trade that he didn’t have his heart in.
“For me, paying a place off and chasing cattle – that’s what I love doing – and trading is the most productive way to do it.”
Tom sees the land he’s purchasing as fitting into his trading and agisting strategy because it will give him more security for his next bank loan.
“At the end of the day, once you’ve got land paid off, it’s yours,” he said. “It gives me an asset I can use.”
QRAA loans were looked at but Tom said he couldn’t use the money he made for ongoing trades; instead having to pay QRAA first.
“I can draw down on a bank,” he said. This is despite an interest rate of 2 per cent at QRAA, against the 4.2pc he’s paying now.
The fact that his slice of heaven is one of the driest parts of Queensland at the moment is “a problem” but not one that is deterring Tom, who takes the presence of early storms as an encouraging sign for the season ahead.
This year his parents recorded 125mm over winter – last year that was their total rainfall.
“We didn’t have one year’s annual rainfall in four years. By the law of averages, it’s got to turn round soon.”
Ongoing contract mustering will help Tom pay his interest bill, even if it’s day work.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
