When I met Russell yesterday as his granddaughter was getting her photo session, I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to create a Golden age session for him. At 89 years old, he is still farming, breeding Clydesdales, & showing no signs of slowing down.
Russell John Halpin was born on 2 January 1937 at Millers Forest, New South Wales. He was the second youngest of six children, growing up alongside two brothers and three sisters on the family dairy farm.
Life on the farm began early. By the age of five, Russell was already helping with daily chores, working alongside powerful Clydesdale draught horses that were the backbone of farming in those days. His father was a skilled pattern maker & broom maker, who had served in the Air Force during the First World War, while his mother worked tirelessly helping to run both the home and the farm.
Russell attended Millers Forest primary and later he rode his bicycle four miles to Raymond Terrace each way to attend high school. At just fourteen years of age, he left school to work on the family farm full-time. It was the beginning of a lifetime devoted to hard work, agriculture and the land.
Russell recalled mustering cattle along public roads by himself, responsibilities that many adults would have found daunting, and driving tractors.
His passion for machinery has never faded. Remarkably, he still owns and drives his original 1955 Fordson Major tractor more than seventy years after it first became part of his life.
Away from work, Russell had a taste for speed. He owned sports cars, including a Jaguar capable of reaching 125 miles per hour. During his younger years he also loved water skiing. Ironically, despite enjoying the sport, he never learned to swim.
Like many country young men of his generation, a night at the pictures in Maitland was a special occasion. It was through friends that he met the love of his life. He told me with a smile that his future wife was "going out with a friend, and I stole her." Russell married Diane in 1964.
Together they raised two daughters while living in a small farmhouse on the family property.
When the 1955 flood ruined everything on their farm, the family sold up and moved to another property.
The family dairy eventually expanded to around 330 cows, becoming a thriving operation.
Russell and Diane built a house at Four mile creek and lived there for around 10 years before buying at Hinton.
When farming changed, Russell embraced another challenge, spending twenty years working in the mining industry. He became an experienced dozer operator and spent six years operating draglines at Bloomfield Colliery. His strong work ethic and willingness to learn enabled him to succeed in an entirely different industry.
Russell remained at the Hinton property for 41 years and is moving close to Tamworth this week with his daughter and her family to a 120 acre property. He continues to run Angus and Speckle Park cattle.
He sadly lost Diane 6 years ago, after 56 years of marriage and said life has never been the same since losing her. He said she was a dedicated mother, taking the children all over the countryside to horse shows. The only time he ever left the state was to attend a horse show with the girls in Queensland.
One of Russell's greatest lifelong passions has been breeding Clydesdale horses. He has spent his entire life raising, training and breaking in horses, often working teams of magnificent Clydesdales & taking them into parades. Today he still keeps around ten horses, is still breeding them, and still uses some of the old farming implements, and vintage machinery.
Today Russell is a grandfather to three grandchildren and great-grandfather to one great-grandchild.
Russell has always believed that hard work is the key to a good life. He takes no regular medication and attributes his good health to no drink, no smoking and not many bad women.
Remarkably despite a lifetime of hard work, he never took a holiday. There was always another job to do, another animal to care for or another challenge waiting.
