From the ALPA NEWSLETTER, SEPTEMBER 2023

It is with much sadness that we announce the recent passing of Mr Russell Fahey, an ornament of our great industry at the age of 101. In reporting for work till the last, Mr Fahey held the distinct honour of being the oldest current employee of an ALPA member agency being a valued part of the august firm of Schute Bell Badgery Lumby. Russell was born at Boorowa, NSW in 1922 initially attending the local parish school, before attending high school in Goulburn. The effects of the Great Depression had a profound effect on the entire rural community and money was tight. He described himself as being somewhat incorrigible in senior school however a chance meeting at dinner in a Sydney hotel between his parents and the reverend Father Meagher SJ, then rector of Saint Ignatius Riverview changed his life forever. He was to complete his schooling at Riverview through a College Bursary Program and returned this generosity not only as a proud member of the GPS Athletic Team but through support to the College throughout his life.  Having completed school the prospects for rural youth were somewhat limited to returning to the family property to undertake menial tasks such as ‘burr cutting’ , however he affirmed that it was his Jesuit education which was the conduit for his gaining employment in the business side of the pastoral industry.  Russell Fahey enjoyed a distinguished stock and station agency career at Pitt Sons, Elders and for the past fourteen years Schute Bell Badgery Lumby. He represented some of the most influential wool and pastoral families in the industry as a trusted adviser and agent. His career saw him purchasing hundreds of thousands of sheep on behalf of clients from areas such as Warren and Coonamble for placement in the Southern Tablelands and all over the state. He enjoyed a particularly strong association with the prolific pastoralist Mr ‘Gundy’ Webster of Binda.
On behalf of the Union, we extend our deep condolences to Russell's extended family.