One of Australia's largest landholders Tom Brinkworth is being remembered for his many impressive achievements, packing much more into his 83 years than most would in several lifetimes.
He passed away at his Watervalley property near Kingston SE late last week.
Leaving school at 14 years of age Mr Brinkworth bought his first five-acre block of land near Gawler five years later and began building a poultry enterprise.
RELATED: Tom Brinkworth dies aged 83
He later moved into pigs and by the late 1960s Mr Brinkworth had one of the biggest piggeries in the southern hemisphere with about 8000 pigs.
In 1970 he and wife Pat began turning their focus to sheep and cattle in the SE, buying Cortina Station on the Coorong.
Through hard work, determination and a relentless urge to buy land in coming decades they amassed more than one million hectares of grazing land across SA, Vic and NSW, including more than 250,000ha in the state's South East.
Mr Brinkworth made headlines in 2013 when he bought 17,000 cattle from Australian Agricultural Company's drought-affected Brunette Downs on the Barkly Tablelands in the NT.
This was the largest purchase of cattle from a single vendor in Australian history, reported to be about $7 million.
The cattle were trucked to Longreach, Qld, and then a drover and their team set off on a 2000 kilometre journey along the long paddock to the Brinkworths' property, Uardry at Hay, NSW, earning him a reputation as a 'modern day cattle king'.
Never doing anything by halves, in 2016 the family were even among a syndicate of four wealthy farming families to challenge Gina Rinehart's eventual successful bid for S Kidman & Co.
In 2018 Mr Brinkworth bought Kingston icon, Larry the Lobster, to prevent it being moved interstate.
Elders Kingston branch manager Greg Cobiac, who was the family's long-time agent, remembers Mr Brinkworth fondly as someone who loved a challenge and a "firm but fair man".
He was a man who would not follow the herd, in fact he would do the opposite and hold off until a better opportunity arose.
- GREG COBIAC
"He was a man who would not follow the herd, in fact he would do the opposite and hold off until a better opportunity arose, then he would act accordingly to capture a better opportunity for himself or his grazing enterprise," he said.
"Tom was a great one for holding his nerve and would not be pressured into a situation that he did not want to be caught in. When the time was right he then chose that moment when not many others were able to sell, he would choose to offer his stock for sale and the buyers were always eager to purchase."
He said Mr Brinkworth was generous in giving people a fair go, often employing people if they were in an awkward situation and asked for help.
Mr Cobiac and fellow Elders agent Ron Rutledge inspected the cattle bought from Brunette Downs prior to the cattle drive.
Another big deal brokered by Mr Cobiac saw 7500 steers and heifers sold by the Brinkworths to S Kidman & Co's Naryilco and Quinyambie stations in late 2005.
An early adopter of sale by description, Mr Brinkworth first offered pigs by a telephone system in 1982 and quickly jumped onto selling livestock on the CALM selling system a few years later.
AuctionsPlus has long been a preferred selling method for the Brinkworths, with some massive offerings, including 15,450 Border Leicester-Merino lambs in one sale in 2016.
About the same time they sold 17,720 Merino woolly wether lambs in one sale.
"Tom always wanted to give everyone an opportunity rather than just sell to one person and while in the early days some people were reluctant to bid online, they soon realised the performance of the stock and kept coming back," Mr Cobiac said.
Another of Mr Brinkworth's passions was conservation, restoring and managing the natural wetlands along the South East watercourses.
After working with then-SE Drainage Board chief executive officer Milton Wienert on a project at the Jip Jip water hole on his Diddicoolum property, Mr Wienert convinced Mr Brinkworth of the need for the land to be retained and protected for future generations, or it would all disappear.
This resulted in public unlisted, not-for-profit company Wetlands & Wildlife being formed in 1991 which is registered on the Commonwealth Register of Environmental Organisation.
Today, Mr Brinkworth's legacy, in the form of W&W, covers more 28,000 hectares in the Marcollat, Bakers Range and Tilley Swamp watercourses, along with 355-square kilometre Warraweena Station in the Flinders Ranges.
W&W acting chairman Keith Frost said the purchase of Pitlochry Station in 2019, of which 2400ha went to W&W, completed Tom's dream of filling in the gaps in the Bakers Range and Tilley Swamp watercourses.
"Tom always had his eye on the flows and with some basic infrastructure would put the water where the most benefit was achieved for the bird habitat," Mr Frost said.
"I would say there is no one else who would have the capacity or the inclination to achieve this remarkable result."
Mr Brinkworth is survived by his wife Pat, sons Angas and Ben, and daughter Annabel.
The family has set up a funding page in Mr Brinkworth's memory for donations to the Kingston Hospital Fund.
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