Obituaries Australia

The death occurred at the end of last month of Mr. Thomas Rodney McWhannell, one of the most widely known personalities of the livestock industry in eastern Australia.

Mr. McWhannell, who was 73 at the time of his death, retired in 1946 after 47 years service in the Stock Department of Dalgety and Company Limited, Sydney, and during the last 16 years of his connection with the department he was its head. He was the only son of Thomas McWhannell, an ex-President of the Queensland Graziers' Association and ex-M.L.A. for the Gregory North District, Queensland. Thomas McWhannell came from Scotland in 1861 with several others who pioneered Western Queensland, and they owned Rodney Downs Station at Aramac, then running 70,000 sheep. They also owned Headingly, Undilla, Oban, and Stoney Plains on the Barkly Tableland, properties on which they grazed between 35,000 and 40,000 cattle in the '80's and '90's.

Mr. T. R. McWhannell joined the staff of Dalgety's in Sydney in 1898, and in 1909 opened the company's fat stock business at Homebush, also the Sydney Stud Sheep Sales and the Royal Show Cattle Sales, at all of which he acted as auctioneer for many years. He was one of the best informed men in Australia on all livestock matters and maintained a keen interest in pastoral affairs to the time of his death. He had been in ill-health for some time and is survived by his widow and four daughters, the Misses Judith, Alison and Rosemary McWhannell and Dulcie, wife of Commodore J. C. Morrow, of the R.A.N, Commodore Superintendent of Training at Flinders Naval Depot, Victoria.