Plenty of young horses were ridden again, polocrosse games played and the quirks of particular managers recalled when nearly 130 people from throughout Australia gathered at Mt Tyson west of Toowoomba recently for an Australian Estates sheep properties reunion.
The brainchild of former employees Paul McIntyre, Hugh Brown and Joe Mildren, it was hailed as a huge success.
People who hadn’t seen each other for 20 or 30 years were picking up where they’d left off and taking a lot of pleasure in reconnecting, according to Sally McIntyre.
“You could see how much their experience with the company meant to them,” she said. “Most joined when they were young and that segment between jackarooing and reaching management level were very formative years.
“Australian Estates was the vehicle but the people made it happen. They had a lot of pride in their work.”
A number of speakers, including Barney Kent, Phil Woodhouse, Ian Marwedel, Murray Murdoch, John Hardie and Andy Page recounted memories of different eras with the company, retaining the audience’s undivided attention for two hours.
As well as paying tribute to the culture engendered by Australian Estates, there were plenty of funny anecdotes and memories of tougher times in the early days.
Paul McIntyre said the venture had been eight months in the making and went off even better than he could have hoped for.
“People were there from diverse eras but they mixed well,” he said. “If they hadn’t worked together they knew someone who did.”
The reunion was held over two days, based at host farm Adora Downs, attracting 90 on the opening night and 128 for the main dinner.
Paul described it as the perfect venue for a country catch-up.
“It was better in a rural setting, and no-one was kicking us out at midnight,” he said. “We thought there wasn’t much point in coming long distances for just a couple of hours.”
People travelled from Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and throughout Queensland for the reunion, and one keen former governess flew all the way from Ireland for the occasion.
Paul said another benefit of getting together had been the opportunity people had to swap contact details.
“Email makes it much easier to keep in touch,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if people don’t have mini-reunions now.”
While the event was planned as a break-even function, any leftover money will be donated to the Royal Flying Doctor Service.
