After 130 years of ownership, the Amos family will say goodbye to their Mungindi farm
For five generations the Amos family has bred merino sheep on the same property on the New South Wales-Queensland border — but that is about to change.
Les Amos and his wife Annette have made the difficult decision to sell their Mungindi property, Burrenbah.
Their daughters have careers and family off the farm and have decided they don't want to move back.
"We've got to walk away, and that's what will be hard," Mr Amos said.
"The last time we drive down this road it will be sad, but life's got to move forward."
The family have had many conversations about what was best for everyone, but staff have become harder to find and looking after a large property has become more difficult.
"It's something we were never going to do … but times change and circumstances change," Mr Amos said.
"If someone wanted to come home we would work with that, but I think they're all happy in their own skin.
"We didn't want to put pressure on them to be this next generation of a farmer if they didn't want to be."
The Amos family began the merino grazing enterprise in 1891, when Mr Amos's great-grandfather, Col, saved enough money to buy a piece of land from a homestead lease. 
The farm is believed to be one of the oldest single-family-owned operations in NSW, and the 8,000-hectare property has always been home for Les Amos.
"We did a lot of mustering on horses and I think we were the last people in the district to get a motorbike," he laughed. 
It is memories of changing seasons, the floods and the droughts that stay with him the most.
"You've got to take your hat off to our forefathers for the hardships they had to put up with before motor cars and probably before telephones."
For Les and Annette's three daughters — Annabelle Hudson, Edwina Cuzens and Sarah Amos — the decision had been an emotional one.
Ms Hudson said they started the conversation a few years ago.
"It's a really tough and emotional decision for Dad and Mum because it has been in the family for so long, but from my perspective I just felt like it had to be treated as a business transaction," she said.
The three sisters have found careers in Dubbo, Sydney and Dalby, and Ms Hudson said they were all on the same page when it came to selling the farm. 
"I think it's really important that conversations are had early and they're not left until it's too late, because if we were to have these conversations when Dad was unwell or at a point where he can't make decisions, it could be a different story." 
Just like her dad, she has many treasured memories of Burrenbah.
"When the drought broke recently at the end of 2019, there was so much rain around and I've never seen the place looking so green," Ms Hudson said.
"To experience drought after drought and then the occasion of joyous rain, it's hard to describe that feeling." 
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
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