On August 27, 1969, Tamworth ground to a standstill as a record cattle sale drove hundreds of buyers, sellers and breeders to town, cementing the region's reputation as a stock hub of NSW.
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In the mid 1960s, Winchcombe Carson chief auctioneer turned Dubbo realtor, Bob Berry, had noticed NSW breeders were "starting to take a keen interest" in bos indicus breeds such as Brahman, Santa Gertrudis, Braford and Brangus, which had previously been popular only in the northern states and territories.
"NSW breeders were going to Queensland for sales, so we started to consider having a sale in NSW. The market was there, we just needed somewhere to hold it," Mr Berry said.
"Together with John Parke, we contacted Tamworth mayor Stan Cole, and another alderman, to propose this sale, although the Tamworth facilities needed upgrading to hold it.
"These breeds were a lot more lively than the Angus cattle, and the majority of them were unled, so everything needed to be a bit bigger and sturdier."
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In the following weeks, the council spent $12,000 upgrading the Tamworth saleyards, now the site of Northgate Shopping Centre, in order to host the annual sale.
At the time, Mr Cole told the Leader "the occasion presented a golden opportunity for the purchase of some of the world's best blood stock."
"I sincerely hope that this would be the frontrunner of many more successful sales in Tamworth," he said.
That decision to upgrade the yards would pay off in spades for the council, and the industry, with the first two-day Tamworth Bos Indicus Sale seeing hundreds of buyers and sellers flood into the region.
That first year saw 270 head sell for what was then a record $236,325.
The next year, the event grew to three days and that record was smashed, with the sale of 843 head for $458,870.
In today's money, that equates to more than $5.3 million.
"It was the highest-grossing stud cattle sale outside of Sydney, and I think that record still holds," Mr Berry said.
"It turned out to be massive for Tamworth. It was chaotic - there was so many cars at the yards that they blocked the main road and the police had to stop the sale to get them to move. The next day, they closed the street for us.
"The grandstand was full, the motels and hotels were full; we had cattle arriving, leaving and in the yards; and we had buyers from every state and territory in Australia.
"It put Tamworth on the map as the bos indicus centre."
The sale grew from two days to five days in just a few years and ran until 1976, two years after the "beef crash" devastated the Australian industry.
