AFTER starting work as a drover at Keith with Bennett and Fisher in 1967, and over 40 years and more than 2.5 million kilometres later, Wilbur Williams has retired after making a name for himself as one of Eyre Peninsula's most recognisable auctioneers.
Mr Williams officially retired from Landmark Cummins in June last year, but was asked to come back from touring around Australia for a few sales this selling season.
A change in lifestyle has given Mr Williams the chance to see more of Australia and perhaps reflect on the past 40 years.
"It's a huge change considering I have been married to the telephone for 40 years," Mr Williams said.
He still remembered in 1968 on his 16th birthday he was at an off shears sale at Keith and it was "150 degrees".
"It was bloody hot," he said.
From the South East, Mr Williams made his way to Eyre Peninsula and across Australia, including auctioneering in Victoria, New South Wales and the Northern Territory.
He made it to Eyre Peninsula in 1970 when he began at Cleve and started auctioneering under Allan Whittaker in 1974.
He later moved on to Cummins, Tumby Bay, Port Lincoln, back to Cleve, Strathalbyn, Naracoorte and back to Cummins in 1992 where he remained for the rest of his career.
It is in Cummins he got married, played sport and made lifelong friends.
During his 35 years of auctioneering, he experienced things not everyone in the business would, as he conducted clearing sales up to three times on the same property.
Mr Williams also auctioned a clearing sale in Alice Springs in 1997 where everything had to be sold as the land was going back to being classed as natural heritage.
"It was one of the few in the Northern Territory and I was lucky enough to get the job to do that," he said.
He has worked through seven different companies because of mergers and takeovers, but this has not been the only change throughout the years he has been involved in the agriculture industry.
Technology has had a big effect on his job - from manual telephone exchanges to the first mobile phones, the amount of agents in the business, and the introduction of computers to record sale details, which meant fewer people were needed for the job.
"The phones had a battery like a car, they were terrible things."
"Clearing sales back in the 1970s, they were 10 hours sales ... when I went to Cummins in 1973 there was in excess of 30 stock agents simply because of the system."
Auctioneering is Mr Williams's passion and he has about 350 clearing sales under his belt, some of which were done day after day.
"1977 was the real bad drought year and we did 17 working days in a row of clearing sales."
The biggest of clearing sales was at Lock in 1976 where they sold for 18 hours as everything on the land was to be sold.
Over the years he has enjoyed many aspects of the job, from the excitement of escalating values in rural land and setting the next level in value.
Auctioneering is something not everyone can do, and these days it was a dying art, Mr Williams said.
"It's a confidence thing ... the ability to judge people's decisions by their body language. I reckon I can tell if a man is going to have another bid without him saying anything."
While there are not many interested in the career pathway, it is definitely one some should consider.
"I think there is a need for young rural oriented people to consider the opportunity of developing their auctioneering skills," Mr Williams said.
Now while he is enjoying the "good life" on his travels, he said he would miss the personal contact with clients and the friends he has made and the job in general.
"You feel good when you have transacted farms, being a part of the end of a farming life operation or even the commencement of one."
Mr Williams and his wife Wendy have been travelling around Australia and plan to do this indefinitely, although Mr Williams said Eyre Peninsula, in particular Cummins, will always be their home.
"I definitely know all the roads from here to Ceduna, that's for sure."
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