John, VIC Fencing Contractor

John reckons he’s a smallish operator, and depending on the job he might run through 50 kilometres of new fence wire a year. Then he puts his hands to repairs, maintenance, and general tidy ups.  White’s Murray wire is always his “go to”.

Across West Gippsland the land varies. There’s flat country, 30,000Ha of Koo Wee Rup swamp that rises to low rolling hills. “Not billy goat country but very manageable land” he says. “It’s a magnificent bit of country. The soil is peat, the hills are a bit lighter, and harder to work on but all very good. There’s very little country you can’t get a tractor on.”

Predominantly John puts in cattle fence, usually two plain hot wires and internal fences of four barbed and a hot belly wire. “If I have a choice, I use Murray wire. It seems to have good strength and resilience because of the quality of steel that’s used. And the barbed wire is so much more manageable than others I’ve worked with. I just like using it. It’s a good price and does the job of containing animals, as it should.”

John says that as a cost-effective solution that also offers quality, the Murray wire helps ensure he gives his customers what they want, and customers will always keep coming back for a good quality fence at a reasonable price.

Exclusion fencing is an area where there can be a big difference in price of brands and Murray wire really stands out. “I have strung up quite a bit of sheep wire, and the Murray Stiff Stay, that’s a very good product and good to deal with. I have gone back years later to see what I have done. Sometimes it has a bit of a tweak, but it is very good quality and it beats the competitors too.”

On a recent job, John installed a new enclosure using the Whites Rural’s heavily galvanized heavy netting wire to protect and nurture grass re-generation for the local bandicoots. The Eastern barred bandicoot is a small nocturnal marsupial, which John describes with affection as a large rat-like creature that behaves like a kangaroo. Though once widespread in Victoria, these bandicoots are now endangered thanks to the introduction of foxes and the loss of their natural habitat. “I used the 900mm heavy gauge wire to lay 300mm in the ground and stand 600mm up to keep the rabbits out while the conservationists were getting the native grasses growing again and making make a safe space for the bandicoot to forage and breed.” It’s a project that John is keen to come back to visit. “This will be an interesting one to see.”