Sad words echo at saleyards
“It’s a sad day” echoed repetitively across the Warragul Saleyards on Wednesday as the last pens of adult cattle were sold.
For some of the saleyards “characters” it was the end of more than 70 years going to the yards, the end of a multi-generational association with an institution in the town.
It has been the meeting place for locals for decades; the place where farmers chat about everything going on in the district and yarns are told of the good ol’ days.
The regulars were all there as auctioneers called for bids on the last pens. But they weren’t just there because it was the final sale, they were there because that’s what they always do on a Wednesday, and Thursday – a tradition that will be no more.
Victorian Livestock Exchange announced in September that it will close the Warragul saleyards, with all cattle sales transferred to its Pakenham facility until a new regional facility at Bunyip North is developed.
VLE has since conceded to the requests of agents to continue calf and dairy sales at Warragul until March 2021.
But last week was the end of an era.
Graham (Boof) Young of Nilma was just twoyears-old when he first went to the Warragul saleyards where his mother Hilda ran the canteen and his dairy farmer father Sydney bought and sold cattle.
For Mr Young, 79, it has been a lifetime association with the yards from the time he could walk and when he was about five-years-old and allowed to go into the yards area with his dad.
“It was horse and jinker days back then and we came to town one a week for market day.
It’s no surprise that from his young start, Mr Young ended up working as an auctioneer with RR and HC Jolly Livestock in the 1970s.
“I still buy most of my cattle out of here. I guess now I will have to stay home and work.
“It’s a sad day, it should never have happened,” he said.
Frank Murray marked butcher’s calves at the saleyards for more than 50 years.
The Drouin farmer was seven-years-old when he began going to the yards, often with his grandmother who was a cattle dealer and “as tough as buggery.”
“I was always interested in cattle. I used to go to the Drouin saleyards opposite the Royal Hotel.
Mr Murray still remembers his biggest day marking calves – 3937 calves on one day with the late Norm Bassett – “they had to stop for lunch to re-pen the calves.”
Lillico beef farmer Maurie Cummins says he will miss the friendship and people he has got to know over a lifetime of going to the yards.
“It’s a great day out listening to all the yarns and the stories.
“When I first came here the wives would walk across to the town and do their shopping and the farmers would come here for the day.
“In those days the old highway would be closed while the cattle were run across the road and loaded onto the railway carriages.
Drovers on a horse and with their dogs would drove the cattle out of town to wherever they had to go,” he said.
Bill Manley of Warragul West has been buying and selling cattle at Warragul for 60 years, previously as a dairy farmer and now beef.
Even when he isn’t buying, or selling, Mr Manley is at the yards every week on a Wednesday and Thursday.
“I just come and have a talk to everyone. I will still go to Pakenham but not all the time.
“We will just have to adjust to the change, we have no option,” he said.
Photographs – pages 18-19