Australian beef industry icon and co-founder of Jack's Creek David Warmoll dies

A larger-than-life figure in and outside of the beef world, he founded Jack's Creek alongside his younger brother Phillip, having bought the Willow Tree property in 1983.

Born into a farming life, they bred Angus cattle and for eight years the pair ran a successful but relatively normal operation. In 1991 that all changed.

After reading a Time Magazine article about Wagyu beef, Phillip decided to raise the idea of breeding the cattle in Australia with his brother.

While regular practise now, it was nearly unheard of at the time as Wagyu cattle were an almost exclusively Japanese breed.

But, the Warmolls were convinced they were onto something, and David swiftly got in touch with a contact from Queensland who could provide them with the genetics.

Before long, they were breeding Wagyu and Angus cattle and producing some of the very first F1 Wagyu beef.

David's pioneering didn't stop there however, as Jack's Creek started trialling grain feeding, days-on feeding and grading the animals.

Through trial and error, the business's reputation grew and they began marketing to a wider range of customers.

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Son of Phillip and nephew to David, Patrick Warmoll, who is Jack's Creek's current managing director, said back then people had difficulty understanding how produce from a Japanese breed of cattle could be coming out of Australia.

Eventually, Phillip and David won them over though, and as a result became the first to export Australian Wagyu to the European Union, with their product being shipped to France and Switzerland.

The company now exports to more than 30 countries and has offices all over the world, including Los Angeles. They have gone from processing 800 to 900 animals per year, to 1200 to 1500 per week.

Despite all of his business success, Patrick believes his uncle will be remembered for something totally different though - his larrikinism.

"He typified the Australian larrikin. He was always up for a chat, he was always up for a yarn or a beer, he was a very good listener and was always interested in what people were up to and he was a very proud family man," he said.

"When he was there you were always having a good time, you were always laughing.

"His bread and butter was that if you were in the UAE or Saudi Arabia and you were in a bar or a cafe and he would see a group of people that looked and sounded completely different to us, he'd walk up to them and introduce himself and get to know them all."

The 71-year-old was a father to two daughters, Sarah and Alex.

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