UPDATE FRI 9.45pm: QUEENSLAND beef baron Graeme Acton has died in a Brisbane hospital. Family sources have confirmed the 63-year-old died shortly before 9pm.
Mr Acton had been fighting for his life after sustaining massive head injuries from a horse fall during a campdraft in central Queensland last Friday.
Family members had maintained a bedside vigil at the Royal Brisbane Hospital today as hopes of a recovery faded, the source said.
Mr Acton was one of Australia's most successful and well-known cattlemen. He had been fighting for his life all week since falling from his horse during the Clarke Creek Campdraft, near Marlborough, last Friday afternoon. Earlier in the week, Mr Acton had shown rallying signs.
Campdraft fall
Mr Acton was treated at the Royal Brisbane Hospital and was surrounded this afternoon by his wife Jennie, four children, son Tom, and daughters Tori, Hayley, and Laura, and brothers Evan and Allan.
Mr Acton was competing in a maiden event, at the Clarke Creek Autumn Classic Campdraft, situated about 188 kilometres north-west of Rockhampton when the accident took place around 2.40pm.
It is understood that Mr Acton had ridden his horse Comet, around the second peg during his run when his horse accidentally tripped the steer it was chasing.
As a result Mr Acton made contact with a steer, which dislodged him from his horse, and it is believed both animals tumbled over Mr Acton leaving him immediately unconscious.
He was treated by the Queensland Ambulance Service officer on the scene, who immediately called for urgent back-up from the nearby Marlborough township.
A spokesperson attending the campdraft said the event was held up for about four hours while Mr Acton received medical attention and before being airlifted by Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service to the Rockhampton Base Hospital.
The dreadful accident left a very dark gloomy cloud hanging over competitors and spectators.
Support floods in
Mr Acton was known for his straight-talking, no-nonsense approach and was much-loved and admired by many people from all walks of life throughout the country.
Since the accident, messages and prayers of support have come flooding in including from the Prime Minister Tony Abbott, as Mr Acton was not only a giant in the pastoral industry, but also a generous benefactor to a lot of charities.
One of the charities in particular Mr Acton had thrown his weight behind over the years is the local Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service, and in an ironic twist it was this Rockhampton-based service that airlifted Mr Acton from Clarke Creek to the Rockhampton General Hospital for stabilisation before his transfer by the Royal Flying Doctor Service onto the Royal Brisbane Hospital.
Over the years Mr Acton was heavily involved in its fundraising, as well as giving his home-base Paradise Lagoons as a venue for open day events, and donating distributed funds from his annual Paradise Lagoons Campdraft.
Executive officer of Capricorn Helicopter Service, Mark Fewtrell, who confirmed Mr Acton was a very generous supporter of the organisation said, "in his desperate hour of need we were able to repay some of his generosity".
A passion for campdrafting
Paradise Lagoons, near Gracemere, annually hosts Australia’s largest campdraft worth $400,000 each in prize money. The $3 million complex - designed and constructed specifically for the sport of campdrafting - was opened in 2003 and dedicated to memory of the Acton brothers’ late parents and named the Val and Tom Acton MBE Memorial Complex.
Mr McIntyre said it is still too early to determine whether the 2014 Paradise Lagoons Campdraft will go ahead as planned, however everyone will be kept updated as soon as the decision is made.
Building the Acton brand
Mr Acton operated Acton Land and Cattle Co together with his brother Evan, which runs nearly 180,000 head of cattle and more than 1.5 million hectares of cattle stations spread across central and northern-west Queensland.
Today the family business supports both the live cattle export trade and the boxed beef trade exported to Asia and the Middle East under the Acton Super Beef brand.
In 2012, the Acton brothers sold their 122,000-hectare Moray Downs scrub country cattle station near Clermont, that they had bought 20 years earlier for $7 million, to Indian mining billionaire Gautam Adani and his Adani Group for $110 million for its underground coal deposits.
It followed an earlier deal with Macarthur Coal, to sell them part of Iffley Station, south-west of Mackay, for $37 million.
In the deal it allowed the brothers to continue running cattle on two-thirds of the properties not needed for open-cut coal mining for the next decade.
Mr Acton was made a member of the Australian Campdraft Association roll of honour in 2012, and was deputy chairman of the Australian Stockman’s Hall of Fame.
Fairfax Agricultural Media staff would like to take this opportunity to send our thoughts and best wishes to the entire Acton family.
