After 35 years handling over nine million Merino fleeces, Landmark’s new Queensland account manager, Bob Tully is entitled to make the claim, “I know my wool”.
Bob, who was born and bred in Quilpie, worked all over eastern Australia as a wool classer and shed boss before putting on the green shirt to liaise between western Queensland woolgrowers and the Sydney selling process they hope will deliver the best price for their wool.
Bob said he picked Landmark, the biggest woolbroker in Australia, to work for because of their professional approach.
“I like the way they professionally analyse appraisals before market and consult growers before their sale,” he said. “I want to be the liaison between what they do in the wool store and the grower.”
His appointment was welcomed by Longreach-based Landmark franchisee, Boyd Curran, as “a tremendous leap of faith” for the company to appoint someone living in western Queensland to the position.
“We’ve had them based in southern Queensland and New South Wales but this shows faith in our region, which traditionally has been the cornerstone of Queensland’s wool industry.
“It says Landmark sees good recovery prospects, thanks to exclusion fencing and the price of wool.”
Bob is ideally placed to work with those interests, having undertaken animal husbandry and stock and meat inspection courses at Gatton College between 1979 and 1982 before doing his wool stencil at Ithaca TAFE and sheep and wool classing at the Melbourne College of Textiles.
From there he’s had a career in the sheds, working for Grazcos and NGS, and as a private contractor.
Boyd said Bob would be working with both dedicated woolgrowers and cattle clients who had bought country in western Queensland to diversify.
“Blackall and Longreach were once the top two branches for Dalgetys in Australia, on the back of the business done in the wool industry,” he said. “I’d like to see us up there again.”