John Henwood Brought Droughtmaster Cattle to the Kimberley's Fossil Downs

Who is John Henwood?

John Henwood is a third-generation Kimberley cattleman who, with his wife Annette, moved to Fossil Downs station in 1968 and spent about 50 years there. In January 2018 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for services to the cattle breeding industry. As a living person, this profile covers only his public professional record.

The two main sources are Beef Central's report, Australia Day award for Kimberley Droughtmaster pioneer, and the Countryman report on the cattle pioneer's honor. The two reports differ slightly in places, noted below.

Fossil Downs and the Kimberley

Fossil Downs lies on the Leopold River in Western Australia's Kimberley region. The Beef Central report says Annette's grandfather, Donald MacDonald, and her uncles William and Charles settled it after droving cattle 5,600 km from New South Wales in 1882. John's grandfather, George Rose, was on the 1879 Alexander Forrest expedition.

The station covered about 400,000 ha. Countryman describes it as northeast of Fitzroy Crossing, while Beef Central says east of Derby; both describe the same Kimberley country. After 133 years of family ownership, the Henwoods sold the station and its 15,000 Droughtmaster cattle to Gina Rinehart in 2015. Countryman reports the price as $30 million.

Why Droughtmaster?

The Henwoods began buying Droughtmaster bulls from the National Sale in Rockhampton in 1985 to improve their Kimberley Shorthorn herd. Countryman says they chose Droughtmaster over Brahman, which stockmen disliked for its temperament, because it suited the improved enclosed grazing country.

The reports give conflicting time frames, saying more than 30 years of involvement with the breed in one place and longer periods elsewhere, so this page gives only the 1985 start date and the 50 years at the station.

The Brahman choice was no small one in northern Australia. The Conversation reports that Brahman genetics rose from under 15% of the Queensland herd in 1965 to 60% by 1981, as laid out in its history of the Brahman in Australia. Henwood went the other way in the Kimberley.

Improving the country

Countryman reports that fencing after the 1983 to 1984 floods let native pastures recover, and the Henwoods later introduced new pastures and collected seed. That is an unusual detail for a station of this size and suggests their cattle work was tied to pasture improvement.

Selection was specific. According to breeder Pam Spann in the Beef Central report, Henwood looked for sires that were polled or scurred, long, with strong bone and good leg length and a golden tropical coat.

Marketing, abattoir and live export advocacy

The nominator for the award, Droughtmaster CEO Neil Donaldson, cited the Henwoods' work to establish a Kimberley abattoir at a time when the nearest was several thousand kilometres away, and their role in developing live export. They marketed cattle under the Fossil Downs brand, which Beef Central calls an early example for the industry.

For a remote pastoral company, building routes to market was as important as breeding.

Honors

In 2015 Henwood received life membership of the Droughtmaster Stud Breeders' Society, the first time a commercial producer received it in the society's 55-year history. He and Annette were also co-recipients of Rural Achievers of the Year from the Pastoralists and Graziers Association of WA that year. In 2018 came the OAM. He was also appointed a Droughtmaster Breed Classifier and has been a Justice of the Peace for 48 years.

After the sale, the Henwoods semi-retired to Perth, split between a Claremont unit and a Gingin cattle property, where they planned to breed and sell Droughtmaster bulls. Henwood told Countryman that staying with the cows is good but he still misses station life some days.

Learn more

For more on Australian station life, see farm.FM's ranching section or a farm.FM story about Droughtmaster cattle.