Qld auctioneer Matt Pearce wins at 2025 Sydney Royal Easter Show
A rising star of Qld’s cattle industry has claimed a major win at the 2025 Sydney Royal Show, the latest prize in an remarkable and rapidly rising career.
Gympie
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A rising star of regional Queensland’s cattle industry is heading off to compete one of the world’s most iconic events after a major auctioneering win at the 2025 Sydney Royal Easter Show.
Matthew Pearce has his sights now set on the 2026 Calgary Stampede in Canada after taking out the 2025 Australian Livestock and Property Agents Association National Young Auctioneers Champion at the show.
Mr Pearce’s winning effort included selling the top priced steer at the competition for $15.90/kg.
It follows his success in 2024 when he claimed the Australian Livestock and Property Agents Queensland Young Auctioneers Competition title at the Royal Queensland Show in 2024.
On Friday Mr Pearce said his performance at the show as “the best I have sold”.
“That’s the pinnacle,” Mr Pearce said.
“That’s how I learned, watching those videos (of the show).”
The win is the latest notch in what has already been a remarkable and rapidly ascending career for the young auctioneer who grew up at Gympie.
His family has extended ties to the Gympie region including owning a sizeable rural property at Cinnabar and, in 1987, building the Wide Bay Feedlot now run by Nolan Meats.
Mr Pearce went to school at Gympie’s St Patrick’s Primary School and College, and grew up on a 12ha property at McIntosh Creek about 6km south of the city.
He was a fixture in the Gympie Devils rugby league team growing up, and it was far from his only sporting interest.
Mr Pearce excelled at long jump, winning at a state-level school competition, and was no stranger to cross country events or donning the cricket pads.
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His keen interest in auctioneering started about age 18 when he left school.
He landed his first job with Sullivans Livestock at Gympie, before accepting an offer one year later to join GDL Rockhampton.
After two years there, the company asked him to head up a new expansion to Emerald.
He has been the manager there for three years now.
Mr Pearce remembered seeing the auctioneers in action and thinking “that’s so cool” and “I hope I can do that some day”.
The big draw was how the auctioneer was in complete control.
“You’re the one running the day … running as fast as you want to go, or as slow as you want to go,” Mr Pearce said.
The job was more than the theatre people saw as the auction unfolded, too.
There was a lot of work done before he ever set foot in front of the crowd.
“You need to know what you’re selling,” Mr Pearce said.
“You need to know the value to be getting the most money for your clients.”
He was grateful to his family, including parents Colleen and Neil, for their support in allowing him to chase his dreams, and was starting to think about the unique challenge which awaited him in Canada in 2026.
Mr Pearce said auctioneers across the ocean “sell in a different way”.
“They sell with the price they want, not the one they’ve got.”
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