Lives and Livelihoods

Outstanding achievements by outstanding Individuals

Ernie and June Holt

Barkly cattleman and local NTCA branch Vice President Ernie Holt has been a pace-setter all of his life, mostly out of sheer necessity - and because he's that sort of fellow.

For a start, he built Australia's first tri-axle semi trailer and also owned the first tri-axle McGrath trailer ever made. It was built to his own specifications.

And he was probably the youngest 'truckie.' ever to deliver a load. As the son of a Bendigo transport operator, he is said to have once delivered a load of oil drums on a night run from Bendigo to Echuca - when he was 12 years old. Now an innovative Territory pastoralist, he is still constantly trying out new ways to achieve the best results.

"Quite often in the earlier days it was a matter of making do with what we could find and using a bit of ingenuity because we had a specific job to do and couldn't buy what we needed to get it done," Ernie says. Ernie Holt has spent a large chunk of his life around trucks and other machinery.

After leaving school, he became an apprentice motor mechanic before getting involved in the trucking business, first with his Dad, and later branching out with his own company in Bendigo.

In 1983, Ernie moved the operation - along with wife June and their three sons - to Toowoomba in Queensland - to the country of his forebears who took up land for sheepfarming near Chincilla after arriving by horse and wagon in 1903. Plenty 'of family members still live and work in the area.

The Holt's Queensland operations benefitted from regional mining development. Using five trucks and 20 trailers, the Holts delivered steel and general freight to Mt Isa and Darwin.

By the late 1980s, Ernie and his family were after: a change and looking for an affordable pastoral property to buy somewhere in the Territory. They purchased the 4500 sq km Benmara Station in 1994 - coincidentally from Cloncurry's Curly brothers who were expanding their cattle transport operations. The Holts moved onto Benrnara in 1997 after selling their transport business. Ernie, June, sons Justin and Ray and their wives Kate and Jody now run the station.

"We'd been looking for a Territory property for a while when this one became available," Ernie said. "We would have considered other
areas but Benmara was the one we could afford, and it suited us because it gave us room to expand in the future.

The Holts breed high quality Brahman cross cattle, maintain a 6500-7000 strong herd for Asian export and also agist other people's cattle. As well, daughter-in-law Kate is working up a stud herd on the property.

"We started off with a fairly old herd and have gradually developed a good line of younger cattle," Ernie said. "Most of our steers and cull heifers are trucked north for export to Malaysia and the Philippines. The rest are sold domestically in response to best demand and prices."

Drought has not been a problem for the Holts. They've had no real bad seasons since they moved onto Benmara - but seasonal rains are a differendifference matter, often impacting on activities because of the shocking state of their local stock roads.

Ernie has been an active NTCA member since 1995 and fully supports the pressure being brought to bear on governments over the roads issue. "The roads out here are worse now than they were when we first moved in," he said. "We don't get a big window of opportunity to get our cattle out and it doesn't help when we can't use the roads for months at a time. In one particular year, we had the situation here where we couldn't get in or out of the station by road from December right through till Easter."

But it won't force them off Benmara or the Barkly.

"We're very happy here," Ernie says. "It's a great life out here, and we've got the best neighbours anyone could get - even if the closest is about 120 km away."

Source: Kerry Sharp