Renowned livestock and stud stock agent, the larger-than-life Mike Wilson, died on Monday after a six-year illness, aged 73.
Many people in the livestock industry knew Mr Wilson "as the bloke at the bull sale with a pen in his hand and notepad in his back pocket", as told in a story about him by The Land a few years ago.
Always ready to take a call, and a regular face at sales across NSW, Mr Wilson, born in Newcastle in 1950, would spend his life in the agency game - and it was his life.
As long-time friend and fellow agent Ross Pollock, of Gunnedah, recalled, Mr Wilson was still out at bull sales in the north of NSW last season.
However, his career began many decades earlier. With a signed letter from his father in one hand and a swag in the other, the 14-year-old would board a train to Burren Junction on Australia Day and where he would start out spending every minute on horseback, jackarooing.
"By that time I was about 18 and I was the same age as the young fellas they were taking on but I'd been in the north for three-and-a-half-years so I've been an agent for a fair while," he says.
Mike went on to train as an auctioneer at Wagga Wagga before working under renowned agent Tony Dowe at Goulburn.
In 1972, he moved to Elders at Tamworth and then soon after, in 1973, he would move to join Dalgety Limited in Gunnedah.
For some years, while in Gunnedah, he would run an agency called Langton Wilson in partnership with John Langton, as well as his own agency, Mike Wilson Livestock, before eventually joining Landmark (formerly Dalgety and later Nutrien) on the stud stock team in 1997.
It was with Landmark/Nutrien that he would work in Dubbo and then Armidale, and it was while in Armidale that, for about 10 years, he would go out on his own again, under the trading name Mike Wilson Stud Stock and Bloodstock.
However, six years ago, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and two years ago, made the move back full circle to Newcastle for his treatment.
No funeral arrangements have been made at this stage, however, it is expected a service will be held in Newcastle sometime next week.
- With Lucy Kinbacher.
