Farming legend Harry Bourchier

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By Dwain Duxson - An Ag Enthusiast

Farming legend Harry Bourchier - I was very lucky to be presented at the Janmac Farm and Community Forum event at Goroke, today. In doing my research on Goroke, I came across an old article about Harry Bourchier, who was arguably one the most famous Farmers in Australia in the 1960s. And it was in 1963 that he put pen to paper to secure the 17,500-acre property "Mortat", a few miles west of the town.

Harry was a massive risk-taker when it came to purchasing Rural Property. He paid something like 400,000 pounds, which was believed to be the biggest Land deal in Australia at the time. Harry loved Growing Wheat, and when he first took over Mortat, he aimed to grow 8000 acres (weather permitting) in the first year upon settlement. Those sorts of numbers are big today, let alone in the 60s.

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Harry went on to own more Properties, which in turn helped some of his seven kids get into Farming. Interestingly Harry married a Duxson, who was Gwen Duxson. This line of Duxsons has the Farm next door to our Family Farm 15km South East of Marnoo. We are cousins and generational friends. They have always known as the rich Duxsons, and we were the poor Duxsons. There's another story there for another day. See at the bottom of the page the story about Harry purchasing "Mortat". Do you have any Harry Bourchier stories?

PS - I first released this story in The Farmers Club newsletter this morning, and Bill Bourchier (Harry’s son) is a subscriber. He kindly asked if I wanted to have a look around, so I took up the offer. Amazing. I will write more about it next week. Thank you, Bill. Reply to dwaind@farmtender.com.au 

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