Meet the Locals: Dubbo real estate icon Bob Berry and how a young man from the city fell in love with Dubbo

A popular real estate figure around Dubbo, Mr Berry recently opened up to the Daily Liberal on just how a young man from Sydney became a successful businessman in one of the biggest regional centres in the state.

Born and raised in Sydney, Mr Berry started his career in 1957 at Winchcombe Carson Woolstores before moving into the stock department.

Mr Berry fondly remembers his first visit to Dubbo which came more than 60 years ago.

"I first came to Dubbo in 1961 to work at the ram sales, where my job was before the sales to break up the bails of straw for the rams," he said.

"That was the start and I virtually came to Dubbo every year because one of the things that attracted me was it became one of the major stud stock selling centres outside of Sydney."

Mr Berry would visit Dubbo four times a year in the 1960s as the saleyards continued to grow, moving to two sales a week as well as bringing sheep and cattle from a wider area to town.

Almost a decade later, Mr Berry moved to Dubbo in 1974 to improve his career and make a name for himself in the agriculture sector.

"I was offered a job with a cattle and horse breeder to do all their selling and marketing but opted not to take it," he said.

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"Because I wanted to establish myself and that's why I chose Dubbo so I could move here to do the whole state.

"My business was then known as the Pastoral and Livestock Company, I was purely simply doing livestock like cattle, sheep and horses."

While he was firmly interested in the agriculture sector, Mr Berry said an unfortunate circumstance led him to move into the property industry initially.

"In 1974 we are a big collapse in cattle prices and we had to go on absorb so we moved over to being an agent to a local builder who was building a project," he said."

"We took on the agency and I was associated with Frank Ramsey, he was a well established local agent.

"We had co-offices, Frank helped me in my business and I helped him."

From there, Mr Berry would open his now well known real estate business and believes the town got too big for him to leave.

"What happened was I got caught up in the growth of Dubbo," he said.

"I moved more into the real estate and as we were more agents for the builders we were dealing with people who wanted to build but needed a block of land.

"So we moved right out of livestock in the early 1980s and we ultimately took over the building operations until the middle 1990s.

"Bob Berry Real Estate came to being in about 1985 and we've traded ever since under that name."

Mr Berry is now 'semi-retired' having sold his business back to his staff back in 2016.

An avid South Sydney Rabbitohs fan, Mr Berry also marched through the streets of Sydney in the eventually successful attempt to reinstate the club in the NRL.

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