Huge respect for loyal Elders man

John Longworth Watkins

Born: Northam, October 3, 1939

Died: Perth, May 23, 2017, aged 77

ACCORDING to life-long friend John Galloway, the late John Watkins personified the image of ‘The Ideal Elders Man’.

Mr Galloway should know.

He and his late father Jack were both ‘Elders men’, with a combined 90 years of service to Elders, so that assessment of John Watkins will go unchallenged.

“John’s business ethics, respect for management (even though from time-to-time he may not have agreed entirely with their decisions), he performed his tasks to their wishes, and at all times respected staff and clients,” Mr Galloway said.

“Loyalty and trust, that was John Watkins wrapped in one.”

An email written by Elders’ Ian White and forwarded to Elders staff the evening after John’s death by Elders South West area manager Simon Wilkinson echoed that sentiment.

That email read: “For those of you who have not heard, a highly-respected former Elders employee John Watkins passed away last evening after a short illness. John has been a mentor and friend for many Elders staff that are still working for the company, he also was the welfare officer for the Elders Retired Officers’ Association and always made the current Elders staff at their functions feel very welcome and well looked after at all times.”

The statements in that email are an accurate appraisal of John Watkins – respected, thoughtful, welcoming.

After completing his education at Scotch College in 1955, John commenced with Elders in March, 1956, in the mail room, as was the norm at that time, before heading to the stock department at Midland a year later.

His first country posting was to Kondinin under manager John Garland, then to Manjimup in 1959 under another well known Elders manager, Don Hastie.

It was here he met future wife Elizabeth (Liz) whom he married in 1964.

Postings followed to Cranbrook as officer-in-charge, where daughters Dale and Lee were born, and then his first branch manager role at Margaret River followed by a near 10-year stint at Williams, then a move to Northam as branch manager, and finally moving to Perth as manager Metro branch in late 1989.

The formation of Elders Burnett Moore (EBM) saw John move back to Northam as Elders branch manager with the added responsibilities of the sheep section at Midland.

When EBM folded back under the Elders banner, John returned to Midland working with Brian Branch in Elders’ pig section, taking over the reins as pig manager at the start of 1999 when Brian retired.

John made the decision to retire from Elders in June 2003, but was called on by Elders in a part-time capacity for a further 12-month period, filling various roles including fill-in manager at Narembeen Wagin and Carnarvon.

A committed Elders man, John loved and lived for his part in the Elders Retired Officers’ Association, serving a term as president and two terms on the committee.

As the current welfare officer before his passing, John supported fellow members in ill health or with disabilities, reporting and updating fellow members on their circumstances, and respectively writing to families of deceased members.

A task he performed with great thought and understanding of the individual families involved.

Another of his passions was The Shopfront, an agency administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Perth, manned predominantly by volunteers to provide food, support and mutual help to those that have fallen on hard times through unemployment, homelessness, alcohol and drug addiction, depression or violence.

John and his group of mates, Mike Moran, Brian Branch, Lindsay Caughey, John Galloway and others volunteered most ‘Mens’ Monday’ to prepare lunch meals for 100 or more, starting their day at 7am sharp.

John’s specialty was making soup, often made up from a dubious or non-existent recipe and equally mystifying contents – but there were never any leftovers!

By all accounts his creative cooking also stretched to dessert making, again received with great pleasure from those less fortunate among us.

In my role as publisher of Farm Weekly I had a fair bit to do with John over the years.

Whether at a store circuit sheep sale, the old pig yards at Midland, at many a hot and dusty clearing sale, or over a few beers at an Elders function, John was always warm with his welcome and generous with information and assistance.

That same support was provided to all Farm Weekly staff, no matter how ‘green’ they may have been, or the number of annoying questions they asked.

So it was without hesitation that when John decided to permanently hang the pink shirt up from Elders I sought him out to help at Farm Weekly to cover a few store sheep and clearing sales.

He took only a little bit of convincing that full retirement was not the way to go – the extended coffee mornings, the games of bowls, looking after his beloved orchids and roses (I mean he certainly had the right size nose to smell the roses), that could all wait.

So in October 2004 John began a late career change as a cadet reporter with Farm Weekly.

And there was not a lot to change in his copy (stories).

As expected John wrote with great authority, knowledge and humour – a natural.

I should have tried to pinch him from Elders years earlier.

There was also an added bonus with employing John, you got two Johns for the price of one.

John Galloway inevitably partnered John Watkins into the bush, two scallywags having a great day out and I was paying for it – and damn happy to be doing so!

I always felt that Watto would have done the job for nothing, he enjoyed it that much, catching up with old clients and mates, seeing his words in print every couple of weeks in the Weekly, and sharing his knowledge and understanding of an industry and a people he loved so dearly.

I have often wondered if he shared his salary with John Galloway?

No doubt he bought him a couple of beers.

That great arrangement lasted until mid 2008 when John made the call to embrace full retirement, hitch the caravan up to travel around Australia with wife Liz, spend some quality time with his extended family and check out every coffee shop and restaurant from Canning Bridge to Coogee.

Considerable overseas travel to Europe and South East Asia was an added bonus to retirement life that John and Liz enjoyed.

I thought I should leave the last words about John Watkins to my old Elders mate Peter Storch.

Storchy rang me the morning after John passed away to tell me the terrible news.

And as you do we shared our stories about John and what a tragedy his sudden death would mean to John’s family and the extended ‘Elders family’.

And that extended ‘Elders family’ turned-out in numbers on the day of his funeral, forming an impressive guard of honour for John’s final journey.

John was Storchy’s second boss when Peter moved to Williams from Beverley in November 1978.

“I started in Williams under John as a junior branch salesman and I was there for four years, finally being promoted to senior stockman under John’s tutelage,” explained Peter.

“You learnt very quickly with John that your role was to look after the clients, to act at all times with honesty and integrity, there was no other option with John but the right option.

“He was also big on looking after your team mate, being a bit thoughtful, pretty good lessons I reckon.

“He taught a lot of people (staff), on the way through and taught them well.

“And he was probably a bit ahead of his time with all this ‘work-life balance’ message we get now days.

“With John the clients always came first, work hard, be totally committed to the clients, but enjoy yourself along the way.

“Enjoy a beer, have some fun, look after the family.

“John practiced what he preached, loved his family, the grandkids, and was a loyal Elders man all the way”.

As we finished that phone call, Storchy said, “you know Trev, John Watkins has been a part of the rural scene in WA for nigh on 50 years, and you know what, I don’t think I have ever heard one person say a bad word about John Watkins – not one bloody bad word”.

“How many of us blokes can say that about ourselves?”

And he is right.

John Watkins was a great bloke, a decent bloke, a terrific family man, a loyal friend to all.

If we could all leave those qualities behind, the world would be a better place.

Happy trails John, we will all miss you buddy!