Birth of family business

FRED Nevins was known in hundreds of towns that dotted the path of expanding railway lines in country Victoria.

The one-third owner of auctioneers Thomas Morrow and Co in his home town of Inglewood would travel the train tracks conducting auctions as new lines opened business opportunities.

The reputation of the young and enthusiastic Fred was quickly forged after he returned to the family’s Sullivan Street home after a year at St Patrick’s College in Ballarat.

An ability to “sell sand to the Arabs” made him the star of Morrows and built up networks that a young Fred would immediately activate when he went solo on April 1, 1923, from a room at Inglewood’s Royal Hotel.

With him was clerk Bob Coutts who had also been at Morrows, established in 1879 by the Irishman from County Tyrone, Ireland, who had seen earlier fortunes lost as a goldminer and speculator or furniture store owner watching his stock engulfed in the great fire of Brooke Street of 1876.

Luck, however, changed for Morrow as an auction house owner, merging with McPherson, Steinberg and Co in Bendigo in 1891.

Young Fred’s gift as an auctioneer of livestock, property and goods was immediately in demand across the region - Frederick Patrick Nevins’ fledgling business was soon popping up across the Loddon, north to Boort, Charlton, Quambatook and beyond, in the Bendigo district and south further than Newstead.

Just as his office at the Royal Hotel was a hive of activity accepting new business and cultivating loyal customers, so too was his presence in those towns where a room was designated the FP Nevins branch office.

After the tough years of the Great Depression, it was recalled at Fred’s funeral in February 1966, he generated a second income stream to support a young family.

He was Inglewood’s SP bookmaker for more than a decade and continued to offer odds on horse races across Victoria until the arrival of the State Governmentowned Totalisator Agency Board (TAB) across Victoria from 1961.

Fred’s knowledge of stock and rural properties has been the strong foundation of the company he founded and now is the oldest family-owned business in the Lod- don Shire. His sons Jack and Jim became the second generation in the 1940s. Jim was at St Patrick’s College in 1937, went to Melbourne working with woolbrokers and stock and station agents Younghusbands before joining father Fred back in Inglewood in 1941.

Jack also had his year at St Patrick’s and gained invaluable industry experience with stock agents Sims Cooper that included two days a week at Melbourne’s Newmarket saleyards.

However, Jack’s entry into the family business life was delayed by World War Two when he served in the Royal Australian Air Force. training in Canada and flying bombing raids over Europe.

Immediately Jack was demobilised, it was back to Inglewood and work in the family firm and when father Fred decided would have a new name reflecting the arrival of the second generation - FP Nevins and Sons stock and station agents was registered.

A further name change would come when patriarch Fred died in 1966 - FP Nevins and Company, stock and station agents.

FP Nevins continued being supported by loyal customers, and like the business, was now selling and buying stock and property for a second generation of farmers and graziers.

In the early 1970s, the Inglewood business was joined by Gerald Kavanagh, who had previously worked with Gippsland and Northern, Warrnambool/Bendigo, and then John McDonald Stockmasters, Sydney, as manager of its Bendigo office.

Meanwhile, back in Inglewood the move was being made from the Royal Hotel offices to premises on the opposite side of Brooke Street.

Chris, James and Luke Nevins - the third generation in the business established by their grandfather 100 years ago - recall the family story of the move stopping traffic while the heavy safe was wheeled on a bag trolley down the centre of Brooke Street by their fathers and staff.

The move across the street would signal investment in construction of new premises in the 1970s that today remains the home of the FP Nevins and Co.

Three generations of Nevins across a century have worked alongside farmers of the Loddon, Victoria and into southern New South Wales.

From the stock market rings to clearing sales, auctions and real estate, the energy and knowledge that Fred Nevins harnessed 100 years ago continues through grandsons Chris, Luke and James and their loyal long-serving staff supporting valued and loyal customers, many also for a third generation.