LLOYD TAYLOR & CO, MOURA - STOCK & STATION AGENTS In 1969 Lloyd Taylor came to Moura in the middle of Central Queensland’s fertile Brigalow area and opened a Stock and Station Agency. He had followed his parents Steve and Addie and brother’s Robert and Owen and sister Elizabeth to the district as they had drawn a Ballot Block just North of Bauhinia Downs that they named “Kurrajong Park”. Lloyd and his wife Dawn (nee Brumpton from Mitchell) had come to Moura from Surat where he had worked with AML&F. His family had come originally from around Millmerran. Australian Estates were already in town and owned the sale yards down near the Dawson River so Lloyd set about establishing his business on paddock sales of cattle, property sales, clearing sale auctions and town real estate, as Moura was fast becoming a new coal mining town. After much canvassing and many delivered newspapers and loaves of bread his business started to thrive and he eventually employed Max……(name escapes me for now). Fortunately for Lloyd, in the early days Australian Estates did not employ commission based property salesmen and most of their staff focused on the weekly cattle sales. Estates also constructed a set of yards at Bauhinia and held sales there from time to time. The local Estates manager was Des Muller (who went on later with his daughter Vicki and son in-law Steve Bottomley to establish the very successful Country Co at Blackwater – now owned by Greg Hardgave). With the Estates staff tied up with cattle, Lloyd Taylor & Co soon became the number one local rural property specialists in the Moura district. In 1976 Greg Blackmore joined Lloyd’s business and remained there for 10 years. Greg had just come from Mt Isa where, for a short time, he was a commercial pilot for North Australian Pastoral Co during the BTEC scheme. The Moura district, with fertile Brigalow soils and a 28” rainfall, was soon discovered as an alternative cropping area for many farmers from Central NSW and other states, so, before long the property market there was booming, with any properties coming on the market being sold almost immediately and prices rising. Lloyd’s business began to focus mainly on properties and auctions and the late night trucking of paddock sale cattle began to diminish. Eventually, Lloyd also trained as a pilot and they started to rent a Cessna 172 from Kooyman Engineering in Biloela to fly clients to more distant properties. Soon after he purchased a Cessna 182 and based it at his property at Banana. (This aircraft VH-EHZ was later to be purchased by another property agent, Phil Black, who was based at Longreach some years later) The aircraft enabled Lloyd and Greg to service a much larger area and soon they were selling properties to the North of Dingo on the Mackenzie River to Middlemount and further North to Barmount and as well, further West to the Arcadia Valley, Rolleston and Springsure. Around the same time, Rodney Scott of Springsure had established Springsure Agencies, which was primarily a merchandise business, and he became involved with Lloyd Taylor & Co as their Springsure representative until such time as he acquired his own real estate licence. Greg Hardgrave had also joined Rodney about this time and worked with Lloyd and Greg to sell many properties in the area. Greg Blackmore left Lloyd Taylor & Co in 1986 and after about 6 months in Rockhampton, started Greg Blackmore Property sales at Cooroy on the Sunshine Coast. This business was later sold to Murray and Lyndal Brown and still trades today as Hinternoosa Realty. Greg later spent some time in Emerald with Tim Maguire at Maguires Real Estate & Livestock, a family business originally started by John Maguire in around 1963 After Greg left, Rod Pharaoh joined Lloyd in his business at Moura and later, after he left to re-enter farming at Wandoan, John Burge from “Parraweena”, Banana worked with Lloyd for a time. John had previously been a stock and station agent with a pastoral house at Cunnamulla. Lloyd eventually sold his business to Wayne Murray and for a number of years it continued to trade under the name Lloyd Taylor & Co, however the land rush to Central Queensland for farming was virtually over and grassed cattle properties were realising higher prices than those that were farmed. Australian Estates had become Elders and now all agencies employed commission based property salesmen prepared to travel. Wayne eventually closed the business to focus on his grazing properties. Lloyd had retired to the Sunshine Coast and now lives at Crows Nest. E&OE
Posted on: Mon, 04 Aug 2014 01:30:47 +0000
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