After many years of conversations with clients about their property buying and selling plans while discussing wool marketing needs, Peter Sealy has officially added rural real estate to his jobs at Elders.
A well-known face across much of western Queensland, Mr Sealy said real estate was a natural fit for him, considering the country he was covering and familiar with, and the casual conversations he was already having.
"People naturally chat to me about their ideas of expanding or selling so now I'll be getting referrals and working with the Elders real estate team," he said. "This makes it more official, and people will know they can talk to me officially about property."
In his livestock and wool service roles, Mr Sealy travels between Toowoomba and Tambo, Thargomindah and Thallon, as he likes to say.
He grew up on the family property, Abbotsleigh, west of Longreach on the Silsoe Road but has lived and worked in wide variety of locations since leaving school, beginning with the Hart's Santa Gertrudis stud and feedlot outside Jondaryan before moving on to Seven-bar-dot poll Herefords at Goondiwindi.
Moving to the Riverina, he concentrated on Merino sheep, working as the sub-overseer at Boonoke and at North Bundy outside Hay.
Following that was 10 years at the Falkiner Memorial Field Station operated by the University of NSW at Deniliquin, working with PhD students on their research projects and managing the sire evaluation scheme there.
Beginning with Elders in 1997, Mr Sealy spent three years at Charleville, three years at the Blackall branch and nine years back his home base at Longreach.
"I loved being in the Blackall district but it was just as everyone was going out of sheep," he said. "I went from being a level three to a level one assessor with AuctionsPlus in a very short space of time because everyone was selling."
He estimates he's assessed over 400,000 sheep.
Mr Sealy has been based in Toowoomba for a number of years now but said he'd been fortunate to see firsthand what different country could produce.
"I can't see property values going backwards in the foreseeable future," he said.
"People realise more and more that agriculture is vitally important, that we're needed to feed and clothe the world.
"I'm really looking forward to being able to offer more of the Elders product services to my clients from now on."