A Family Business Case Study
- Athole

When the patriarch of a family business dies, the 3 adult children inherit the sheep farm. The son chooses to stay but the two daughters vote to sell the property and take the cash. This is the case study of how one Australian family is torn apart by conflict from within.

Background

Our story begins in the 1920's. In the southern New South Wales Riverina, about halfway between Narrandera and Jerilderie, the Athole Pastoral Company straddles the Yanko creek, covering more than 10,000 hectares. It's flat, broadacre grazing land where they breed thousands of sheep for meat and wool production, and run hundreds of head of cattle, too. In summer, the trees on the horizon shimmer in the haze of 40-degree plus heat. In winter, the frost on the ground freezes the puddles.

John and Bessie's 3 children - Catherine, Mary and John - are reared on the family farm. But for reasons that remain unclear, Bessie chooses to send her infant child, Mary, to live with relatives at Tylden in central Victoria. This stops the fighting between Catherine and Mary, but leaves a legacy of separation and abandonment that will haunt Mary forever.

Despite this, their childhoods are mostly happy. Catherine and John grow up on Athole. Mary's adopted home becomes Tylden; surrounded by loving aunts, she creates and cherishes many happy memories there. All the children board at private schools in Melbourne, growing up in the Great Depression of the 1930's, the Second World War, through rabbit plagues, shortages, and good and bad seasons.

Fast forward to Australia in the early 1950's. Queen Elizabeth II ascends the throne. The Korean War brings great prosperity for Australia's sheep farmers with high prices for wool. And the dream of the Snowy Mountains power scheme is about to become reality. The future looks bright.

Nothing is certain but death and taxes

The head of the family dies in 1954 and ownership of the farm passes to the adult children - Catherine, now 38; Mary, 36; and John 31. In these more traditional times, males run the farms while females marry into other families. As Manager of the farm, John's first challenge is to pay the probate (or "death taxes") of some £76,000, equivalent to a crippling present-day value of almost $2,100,000.

Unable to agree on how the probate should be paid, in desperation John sells some of his own property to pay the family company's liability. His sisters never repay the debt.

The next generation

John marries and begins a family of his own at Athole. Catherine, previously the #1 woman in the homestead, is displaced and now vies for relevance with John's wife, Helen. Unable or unwilling to accept her changing role and work with others on the farm, her position becomes untenable.

She moves to Melbourne, chooses salubrious Toorak, and asks her sister to lend her half the money to pay for her new home. Mary agrees, joins her sister in Melbourne, and soon marries to begin her own family in the leafy suburb of Canterbury.

Show me the money

Neither Catherine nor Mary works because each receives a third of the profits every year from John's efforts at Athole. Mary's income is further supplemented by her husband and an inheritance from her aunts at Tylden. In the good seasons this arrangement works well; in the bad seasons, John draws upon the company's bank overdraft. In the 15 years which follow their parent's death, Athole undergoes floods, bushfires, price fluctuations, good seasons and bad - continuing the usual events for many Australian farms.

Both sisters continue to agitate for more money than the property can reasonably generate from season-to-season. Living the life of a wealthy socialite, Catherine is happiest amongst friends but seems unhappy with the family, often asking John for more. If she ever considers repaying the outstanding housing loan to her sister or probate debt to her brother, she doesn't show it.

Mary, too, wants more money for her own family - recently married, she and her husband have a new home, 3 children and school fees to pay.

John continues to work the family farm, generating profits as best he can, looking after his wife and 3 young boys. It's a tough life, but it's all he knows.

Sale of Athole

Calls to sell the Athole property begin in the early 1960's and continue throughout the decade. But why?

From Catherine's perspective, 40 years of memories and emotional attachment are severed when circumstances force her to leave the farm. Certainly Melbourne was more expensive than living on a farm in country New South Wales... and wonderful times were to be had - horse racing carnivals, overseas holidays, collecting antiques, expensive clothing and champagne was the lifestyle she enjoyed. Financially, it makes sense to sell.

Mary had little real emotional attachment to the farm, having been taken away as an infant and forming stronger, more meaningful attachments to her new home at Tylden. If she gazes into her crystal ball, the sale of Athole might well represent financial security for her family; and if she plays her cards right, she can regain her money from Catherine at the same time.

John was a grazier at heart, rearing livestock, managing a large property and a man well-known and respected throughout the district. Selling one's property was anathema to farmers of his ilk; far better to persevere and persist with what you had. With his wife and family, farming is what he was born to do.

Against this complex backdrop, Mary promotes the sale of Athole, John advocates staying, and Catherine sits on the fence, voting first with one and then the other in an endless cycle of tension and emotional games.

Finally, in September 1969, Mary persuades Catherine to sell the farm. With two of the three Directors voting to sell, it's "majority rules" as the Athole Pastoral Company is sold six months later - the lands, buildings, machinery, livestock, furniture, the homestead... everything.

Expenses are deducted; taxes are paid; and the remaining money is split three ways... but only after Mary witholds the release of John's share of the money to force Catherine to repay her housing loan in full.

Payback

Family anniversaries, celebrations, even funeral services are rejected.

John swears never again to speak to Mary, and for the next 15 years, keeps his promise. He dies in 1984, a man of his word. The conflict thaws but recriminations and bad feelings linger for more than 20 years. Catherine dies in 2003, and Mary in 2006.

Observations - why act as they did?

This family conflict seems to be about money - about securing one's own financial lifestyle. Whether by accident or design, these actions frequently occur at the expense of siblings. But appearances can be deceiving - there are greater forces at work. The real motivations behind this conflict are the needs of intimacy, recognition and economic well-being:

        * Mary's need is for intimacy and re-connection with her estranged parents and to ensure her own children remain intimate with her ie never to be abandoned as she was. The demands for her share of Athole were probably more about her need to be recognised as a part of this family and therefore, what was owed to her, more than the actual money itself. (Money was not an economic necessity for Mary, although it would have made her life easier.)

        * Catherine's need is for acceptance by her siblings and their immediate families. After 40 years at Athole, she must have felt that her right to belong in her own home was dismissed (not recognised) upon being "evicted" from Athole. 10 years later, an element of revenge still simmers - "If I can't have it, neither can you." The possibility for an improved lifestyle, which the sale of Athole certainly would have given, would be too much to resist.

        * John's needs are for identity, recognition and economic-well being... if Athole is sold, does he remain a grazier? What will he be, and how will others see him? Will he be able to support his family if he is no longer on the property?

        * Catherine, Mary and John all have needs to be recognised as independent adults, leading separate yet interconnected lives.

Conclusion

The Athole Pastoral Company is a tragic Australian family business case study where the central players, the family, and the entity are torn apart by conflict from within. The long-running ploys over money masked the greater cries for intimacy, recognition and economic well-being, and were often a means of validating oneself by asserting control over others.

These tactics won the money but destroyed their relationships with one another.

To my knowledge, none of the main players ever revealed their real feelings to one another. Each harboured mixed emotions towards their siblings, grudgingly taking feelings of profound bitterness, angst, confusion and love with them to their graves.

In keeping with the deceased wishes, John's body was cremated and his ashes scattered over Athole's paddocks, near a favourite stand of trees. Catherine's body was interred beside her parents. And Mary's ashes were scattered amongst those of her husband and youngest son.

May their spirits rest in peace.

About the views expressed

I have endeavoured to represent a fair picture of all parties concerned, basing my views on research and family history. Where actual decisions or motives are unknown, I've attempted to explain actions using my understanding of the people involved.