The tiny western Queensland town of Barcaldine has a habit of boxing above its weight.
With an official population of just 1540 (plus 60,000 sheep) and a remote location 520km west of Rockhampton, “Barcy” could easily be just another largely forgotten little town.
Instead, it has a habit of showing up like a photo bomber of history.
It is the home of the famous Tree of Knowledge, which is accredited as the birthplace of the Australian Labor Party, off the back of the Great Shearers Strike of 1891.
Australia’s first artesian bore was found there, it is part of the World’s Largest Sculpture Trail and, despite the outback location, it is renowned as the garden city of the west, with streets typically named after plants.
Less known is that the origins of leading independent law firm McCullough Robertson (McR) can also be traced back to this little town that could.
Founding partner Robert McCullough lived and worked in Barcaldine and this experience still provides the foundations for the firm’s values – being down to earth, commercial, generous, and committed.
It also kicked off a long tradition of McR engaging personally and regularly with rural and regional Queensland and being a champion of rural issues and opportunities.
As McR gears up to celebrate its centenary next year, the McR team recently did a pilgrimage to its spiritual home to thank the town and its people for the role they played in shaping the firm.
McR Chair of Partners Kristan Conlon told a dinner to mark the occasion that, as the current custodians of McR, there was a responsibility to honour that history.
“That means remembering where we started, respecting the legacy that has been passed to us, and doing our part to build a strong future for those who come next,” she said.
The Head of McR’s Food and Agribusiness Group, Duncan Bedford, who took part in the visit, said the team was impressed with the vibrancy of Barcaldine.
Much of this had come off the back of an “amazing run” of good rainfall years.
However, he also cautioned that now was the time to invest in rural and remote areas because the good years would not last forever.
“The key is using the good years to build the capabilities of both businesses and the community to get through the bad years,” he said.
“It’s all looking great out there at the moment. Cattle prices are decent, there’s grass on the ground, everyone’s mood is up.
“It is important to use these years to build capability to make it through the challenging years that no doubt are coming.”
Mr Bedford said that continued investment in services like health was also vital to keeping a critical mass of people in rural towns so they could have a sustainable local economy.
The managers of one of the large properties the team visited near Barcaldine had pointed out that they were able to encourage people to work on the station because there were services within an hour’s drive.
Without that, retaining a critical mass of labour would be very difficult.
Mr Bedford said Queensland’s agricultural areas were still being held back by state land tax rules that drove away investment from large superannuation funds and other institutional investors.
“This means large Australian potential investors like super funds are being discouraged from investing in Queensland,” Mr Bedford said.
“There are some positive noises being made about potential legislative change in this area. This is needed to ensure that the Queensland agricultural sector does not keeping losing investment to other jurisdictions.”
