Jimmy Matthews celebrated 25 years

Invitations were sent out to who’s who of the industry to enjoy the milestone that has been set by Jimmy with a total of 65 years in the livestock industry.

Jimmy started his career at the Newmarket saleyards in Melbourne, in 1949, at the age of 13.

His employer was Fisken, Read and Co. He became a Fisken Read auctioneer at the age of 17 and less than 10 years after starting in the business he was the owner of the company.

Jim partnered with Jack Coghlan and the two of them built the company into what was the largest private stock and station agency in the southern hemisphere which at its peak sold 210,000 cattle a year.

From 1950 at 13 years to 1984 Jim built a reputation at Newmarket and until he sold the Fisken Read business to Challenge Mercantile.

Jimmy is quoted as saying the fairy godmother came to him twice in life – once when he purchased Fisken Read and the second time when Challenge Mercantile brought his business in 1984.

Unfortunately for Challenge Mercantile the Newmarket saleyards closed just two years later in 1986.

However Jimmy was the ringleader lobbying against the closure of the yards! They closed finally in 1987, but Jimmy had the last word: as his great-grandfather brought the first pen of bullocks offered at Newmarket, so it was Jim who sold the final pen of bullocks by auction.

The yards of course are long gone now, but the work Jim and others did to remind people of how much of an institution they were perhaps contributed to the amount of history recorded about them in the Museum of Victoria. Jim himself is immortalised in a mural on a walkway that passes underneath Epsom Road, on what was a key stock route into and out of the market.

Jimmy spread his area of influence and started doing business with cattle in the Northern Territory in the mid-1970s, growing the business in the 1980s when he pioneered the marketing of cattle from places like Brunette Downs in Newmarket.

said “that’s why we’re here today, because he’s now been with our company for 25 years.”

“Today you are still a valuable part of the Landmark team, your advice to young people is invaluable, you consistently tell them pick up the bloody phone and ring people,” Mr Norton told Jimmy.

“Congratulations on reaching 25 years with Landmark, it’s our honour and privilege to have you in our team,” he said.