“I was the biggest dunce,” confesses Stan Henwood of his brief school days. “But I was a genius on figures as far as working out whether it was profitable or not. I never wrote anything down – excerpt from The Long Paddock by Andrew Chapman and Tim Lee.
To see those Wagga cattle saleyards full of black cattle, all one earmark was a swallowtail out of the air, I don’t think Wagga will see that again.
- Bernie Wall
These comments were made two years ago and ask anyone today – just a couple of weeks after the death of Mr Henwood – and they will tell you he was “sharp as a tack and astute at making business decisions.”
He was described as “king of the road” and the “second Sidney Kidman”. And when he implemented a succession plan to pass on some assets it was reported to include about 70,000 cattle and 26 major properties.
If there was one word the rural sector used to sum up the life of Mr Henwood and the legacy of the Henwood Pastoral Company that he established it would be respect.
When it came to publicity he was a quiet, yet polite man. But that didn’t stop the success of the burgeoning empire he built from glossing the pages of everything from Business Review Weekly to major agricultural publications and carefully-written coffee table books.
Around Wagga he was a well-known face and if you drove past “Grove Meadow” you could catch a glimpse of Mr Henwood grazing his cattle on the side of the road while he sat watching them from his vehicle just like a wiry old drover.
And as outlined in Wagga Wagga: A History, by Sherry Morris his namesake carries on in the form of Henwood Park – one of Wagga’s main sporting venues – that he provided the land for. And the name of Kooringal (the suburb) carries on from a Henwood property too.
Livestock industry stalwart Geoff Wilks of Wagga has had a long association with Mr Henwood and Henwood Pastoral Company.
Mr Wilks reminisces about some of the transactions which took place and how they shaped the man that he described as a “risk taker” but a clever and wise one. “We turned up at the Hay sheep sale in 1968 and I remember he bought almost the entire yarding,” Mr Wilks said.
The story goes that the livestock agents were still counting Mr Henwood’s sheep out of the yards the next morning. “The start of the mob was at 16 Mile Gums (26 kilometres south of Hay) when the last of the mob was being counted out of the yards,” Mr Wilks said.
For Mr Wilks the Stan Henwood stories and anecdotes keep rolling.
Another fond memory was a time when Mr Henwood bought 1500 steers from Tasmania. At the time a Riverina drover heard about the purchase and contacted Mr Henwood to see if he could bring the herd home. “Stan asked him how he would get the cattle across the water,” Mr Wilks remembers.
“I won’t bring them that way,” the drover said in what appeared to be a naive yet humorous bid to avoid Bass Strait.
“He was also a risk taker … the bigger the risk the more he would take it on,” Mr Wilks said.
“I remember talking to him during the 1956 floods and saying what are we going to do now Stan?”
To that Mr Henwood replied “See if you can get me some irrigation licences Geoff."
Mr Wilks said it was an attitude of never giving in which set him up well.
“I remember my father saying – more than 60 years ago – that the next drought will beat him,” Mr Wilks said.
“But he took on the droughts and won every time … even this last one. He took that one on and won again.”
Bernie Wall, who now lives in Corindi Beach, worked for Mr Henwood for 24 years and says the man was a legend in his own time and there won’t ever be another one like him.
“I remember at one time there were about 32 or 34 properties in the group (Henwood Pastoral) from the Gulf of Carpentaria to Jerilderie,” Mr Wall said.
Mr Wall was one of the people involved in transporting cattle to the three major Henwood single-vendor sales in Wagga from 2003 to 2010. The first sale returned a gross of more than $2 million.
“To see those Wagga cattle yards full of black cattle, all one earmark was a swallowtail out of the air, I don’t think Wagga will see that again,” he said.
“The man knew how to drive a hard bargain, at those special sales I used to go around with him after the sale and he would haggle over a couple of dollars on the passed-in lots.”
Mr Wall remembered well a quote that one of the workers at “Grove Meadow” had used one day and how it struck a chord with Mr Henwood and spoke to the heart of his work ethic.
“We are not bad at the impossible but we are hopeless at miracles,” the worker had said.
Elders livestock agent Bryan Maher of Wagga remembers the time when Mr Henwood and his family approached the company about the prospect of running the single-vendor sales.
“Those sales were very successful and unique and there was a lot of work involved,” he said.
Mr Maher also remembers Mr Henwood’s philosophy of buying when everyone wanted to sell and selling when everyone wanted to buy.
Former Wagga Livestock Marketing Centre manager John Knight reflects back on Mr Henwood and said he was someone who earned respect. Mr Knight was manager of the selling centre from 2001 to 2008 and held the reins during the time of the single-vendor sales.
“I remember walking up to Stan on the sheep sale – the day after the first big Henwood sale here – and I opened the conversation saying you made $2 million yesterday, that would come in handy,” Mr Knight said.
He also remembers Mr Henwood’s response where he informed him that the feed bill the previous year was $11 million and the sale was a “down payment”. Mr Knight also remembers how Mr Henwood would sit beside the auctioneer during the sale. At the end of the auction a print out of the totals and averages would be forwarded on.
“I used to like to see how close he was (at working it out), invariably he was always close,” he said.
“Stan was always 10 steps ahead of the next person … he would have been a great chess player.”
Mr Knight says Mr Henwood was universally respected and will be fondly remembered by rural and regional Australians.
