Man, 91, dead, four injured after multi-car smash near Crookwell
The family of 91-year-old legendary wool producer Trevor Picker are in mourning after he was killed in a horrifying four-car crash in the NSW Southern Tablelands on Friday night.
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He was a legend of the Australian wool industry known to his more than 20 grandchildren simply as “Pop”.
But the remarkable life of 91-year-old Trevor Picker — the one-time head of his family’s famed Hillcreston Merino stud — came to a tragic end on Friday night when he was killed in a horror four-car crash with a P-plater on the NSW Southern Tablelands.
The Order of Australia recipient, who was the patriarch of the Picker wool dynasty, was killed just after 5pm when his black Subaru was destroyed in a four-car smash on Junction Point Rd near the tiny town of Binda.
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It didn’t take long before word filtered back to Mr Picker’s family and friends in his close-knit home town of Bigga, not far from the crash scene.
A family member said his wife Janet was being comforted by relatives.
The family name is revered in the tiny 245-person town, which is known as the Land of the Golden Bale, thanks to the family’s success in the wool industry.
“He and his family are so well respected in this town, it’s just awful,” said one local business owner who did not want to be named.
The Picker’s Hillcreston Merino stud, which still operates in Bigga, was founded in 1925 by Mr Picker’s father Sam Picker.
Mr Picker started work at 14 years old as a self-taught wool classer and spent his life building up the reputation of the family business around the world to the point where he was honoured with an Order of Australia in 1988 for his services to the wool industry.
By 2004, the business was being run by Trevor and his wife Janet in partnership with their four sons Danny, Murray, Grant and Brett.
The family also has produced NRL talent with Mr Picker’s grandson, Joe, playing for the 2014 South Sydney premiership winning squad.
Mr Picker leaves behind more than 20 grandchildren and several others that are due to be born by the end of this year, one family member said.
Police are investigating the cause of the crash but believe a 24-year-old man on his red P-plates driving a white Nissan Patrol crossed to the wrong side of the road.
He was subjected to mandatory testing and was rushed to hospital along with the drivers of two other cars involved.
A 64-year-old woman, from Goulburn, remarkably only sustained minor injuries after her car rolled and landed with its wheels off the road.
A 69-year-old man and 57-year-old woman, both from Greystanes, were also taken to hospital by ambulance.
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