A BENEVOLENT and visionary pastoralist who founded one of Wagga’s biggest suburbs has died aged 91.
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Stan Henwood was a stalwart of Riverina livestock farming who never retired and sold his last lot of cattle on the same day he died.
But he will be remembered most as a family man who felt a strong affinity for the Australian battler, and in turn gave generously to charity.
Born in Wagga in 1925, Mr Henwood grew up on his family’s property ‘Grove Meadow’.
At the age of nine he contracted polio and missed a lot of school, which Mr Henwood would later claim left him basically illiterate.
Family say despite his struggles with reading, Mr Henwood had an astounding capacity for sums which served him well later in life managing his many landholdings.
Turning 21 was a year of trials for Mr Henwood as he miraculously survived a shooting accident and later lost his father.
After his recovery in hospital, Mr Henwood made the decision to sell his father’s property ‘Kooringal’, subdividing the land for residential development.
It is now the site of the same named suburb today, and one of Kooringal’s biggest green spaces, Henwood Park, bears his name.
Mr Henwood married the love of his wife Eileen at 23, and over the next few decades was a successful stock dealer, acquiring substantial land in the Riverina and across Australia.
His determined streak was well known, and Mr Henwood always had a plan B in case he became bogged down looking for new agistments.
Chair of the NSW Farmers Wagga branch Alan Brown said Mr Henwood’s business acumen revolutionised livestock farming.
The 91-year-old led the way in purchasing larger pieces of land which enables producers to better ride out adverse weather, Mr Brown said.
Longtime friend Jeff Francis, who first met Mr Henwood in 1953, said he loved life on the land.
“He was just a marvelous man,” he said.
Mr Henwood passed away peacefully on Monday at Calvary hospital. He is survived by his children Trevor, Erena, Raymond, Malcolm, Yvonne, 17 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.
A service will be held at 11am on Tuesday, August 30 at ‘Grove Meadow’ Eunony Bridge Road.
