Pioneering northern cattle veterinarian John Armstrong passes away

Beginning with King Ranch in 1967, having graduating with a veterinary science degree from the University of Queensland in 1961, John was given responsibility for the company's bovine tuberculosis eradication programs well before the national campaign began in 1970.

That ranks among the world's great animal disease control projects and a work colleague, Roger Halliwell, said there was hardly a vet with a longer association with BTEC.

"He was absolutely dedicated to disease eradication," he said.

"King Ranch identified they were losing 20 to 40 per cent of their turn-off, condemned at the works.

"John set the TB eradication program up, and that became the blueprint for Australia's program."

John's work was expanded on a contract basis to Queensland Stations, which saw him responsible for TB testing programs across its vast property portfolio including Rutland Plains, Van Rook, Miranda and Strathmore, as well as central Queensland properties Bluff Downs and Dotswood.

Interspersed with this, he had integral roles in the development of husbandry programs in King Ranch's Philippine cattle production program as well as shipboard veterinary activities on sheep live export boats to Iran in the early 1970s.

He joined the Stanbroke Pastoral Company in 1979 as its senior veterinary officer, a 20-year career that began with the eradication of TB from the Stanbroke herd, not an easy ask given the scale of the company's portfolio as a whole, and its geographic challenges.

As well as tough, unforgiving environments, there was resistance from tough, unforgiving station managers under significant stress resulting from the immense workloads required.

"A lot of managers were hard-headed guys - this was a pretty big change for them," Roger Halliwell recalled.

"There was a lot of expense involved too; John and the other vets had to manage that conflict.

"He wasn't outspoken, he was quiet but well-informed and more importantly, he hooked in and did the work."

In doing so, he paving the way for revolutionary changes to property infrastructure and cattle handling, which fundamentally changed the northern cattle industry for the better.

The economic bounty resulting from the level of herd control achieved firstly by fencing for segregation, and the genetic and fertility improvements that were then able to be conducted, is measured in billions of dollars.

These measures were integral in the growth of Stanbroke to its pre-break up scale of 530,000 cattle run across 27 properties.

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These are memorable achievements for a man born in Deniliquin, NSW where his parents operated grazing properties. During World War II, John and his siblings headed north to Queensland with their mother while his father fought overseas for six years.

He spent his early years living a free range childhood between his mother's family home at Rosevale, Wyandra and Southport, where his grandparents had a holiday home.

He was educated as a boarder at Melbourne Grammar.

People have described him as overwhelmingly a people person who felt a special responsibility to younger people in the industry, saying he was active in the implementation of training and development programs for all levels of industry, with a particular focus on opening pathways for women in the industry.

He believed and strove for inclusiveness long before it was fashionable.

Sandi Jephcott took over from John as Stanbroke's chief vet, working with him for a year in a transition period and said that while she'd worked on feedlots and her family's cattle interests in Papua New Guinea, it was John who got her appreciating the scale of how big pastoral companies operate.

"Stanbroke's managers told me, he was a person they could speak with in head office," she said.

"He never went with general opinions; he formed his own well thought out opinions.

"As well as a mentor, I regarded him as a good friend."

Once TB was eradicated, John continued working with Stanbroke to help develop one of northern Australia's best commercial cattle and horse herds.

At its peak, Stanbroke ran over 6000 horses comprising brood mares and plant horses, for which highly disciplined breeding and handling programs were adopted.

John continued his close involvement with the northern industry after his retirement from Stanbroke in 1999, with consultancy roles for many of the big players in their herd development programs as well as on behalf of AMP, overseeing management of South Pacific Agriculture beef and cropping properties in NSW.

Despite being busy developing and operating his own cattle and irrigated farming operation at Bowenville on the Darling Downs he was always ready to 'down tools' for the greater industry good, playing key roles in the control of the equine influenza outbreak.

He had only retired to Brisbane in recent years.

John, 85, is survived by his wife Jill, daughters Liza and Rebecca and son Adam.