“VJ Byrnes at the time (strangely enough in a little town like Manilla) had the biggest single-handed stock and station agent in Australia,” Brian said.

Brian was about to sit his leaving certificate. He loved stock, but was not sure what he wanted to do.

“One day Mr Byrnes said to dad ‘Tell young Brian to come down, I think he’d make an auctioneer’, so I went down and talked to him,” Brian said.

“I finished my leaving on Friday, November 25, 1953 and I started with him on Monday, November 28. No schoolies in those days.”

Aged 17, Brian said he worked in the office, learnt the saleyards and a bit of everything. As he neared 18 and was about to become eligible for his district auctioneers licence, the Sergeant of Police turned up and handed him the fright of his life.

 “Sergeant Waddell, came in about 10 days before my birthday with a summons and I nearly wet myself,” Brian chuckled.

“It just said ‘...had to appear in the Court of Petty Session in the Town of Manilla, State of NSW on the 14th of September to wit: to apply for a district auctioneers licence’. The old boss had organised everything with the local solicitor, Don Kennedy.”

Brian was licensed on his birthday by Tamworth Magistrate Hodson, who travelled out to Manilla on the day to give him something he could never lose. Brian became the youngest licensed auctioneer ever in NSW.

“Somebody could equal it, but they could never beat it,” Brian said.

“When I turned 21, I was entitled to a full licence and like most young fellows I wanted to look around.”

During a chance meeting at a dance in Tamworth, a friend told him that Elders Smith was across from South Australia and needed an auctioneer in Gunnedah. Brian had a lot of relatives there so was pleased when he got the job. But the manager there thought Brian needed more experience with wool and sent him to Newcastle to get it.

“I started there on Monday, February 10, 1958. I went out to Maitland saleyards and they gave me a go at selling. Got back and the boss called me in and said ‘You the bloke going to Gunnedah?’ and I said yes, and he said ‘Look, we’ve sacked two people at a place called Inverell. We’ve got no-one to replace them, would you go up and stay there for three weeks?’. I never got to Gunnedah. Came here for three weeks and I’m still at Inverell,” Brian laughed.

In 1963 Elders sent Brian to Parkes as the branch manager and it was an unhappy experience, but it did lead to the branch manager’s job with Farmers and Graziers back at Inverell. It was a health scare that led Brian into a conversation with Alex Johnston and Stan Tonkin at the bowling club. They suggested he go out on his own.

“So I did. I started my first own business on April Fool’s Day 1969,” Brian chuckled.

At 78-years-old Brian said people have asked him why he hasn’t retired, and for him the answer is simple.

“I just love auctioneering of livestock, I love the agency game and above all the people in it, the people I’m dealing with.”