Driven by community values

Matthew Wade

Rural Manager

A community man through and through, Rabobank’s Matt Wade’s dedication is so great, he’s willing to put his body on the line – literally.

Each season Matt traverses rugby fields across central west NSW playing for his beloved Trangie Tigers as one of its more ‘senior’ team members.

And while the hits may seem a bit harder these days, and he laughs that he’s old enough to be some of his teammates’ father, Matt smiles that “it’s just what you do” helping contribute to small communities.

It’s a dedication that’s been reflected equally throughout Matt’s 18 year Rabobank career.

Launching his career as a rural officer in the Dubbo branch, Matt’s role has evolved and diversified in line with his appetite for opportunity.

Curiosity, and the chance for career progression led his path into IT system development and implementation, and he spent six years in Sydney’s head office where he was crucial to the creation and deployment of the Client Management System used across the bank.

His career came full-circle after the lure of the land became too great – the bank supporting him in a move back to the Dubbo branch to work remotely, well before it was a Covid norm.

And he hasn’t looked back.

With Matt’s parents still at the Trangie property on which he grew up, 75km west of Dubbo, his young family is able to enjoy the best of both town and country life.

“It’s incredible how much Dubbo has progressed since I last lived here, it’s a great sized town with everything we need and I’m grateful for the lifestyle our two children now enjoy – with space, farms and grandparents all in close proximity.”

Since returning to Dubbo Matt’s career has also taken another exciting turn – today he is one of Rabobank’s internal appraisals managers, charged with completing independent property appraisals of the rural properties held as collateral by the bank.

And with the continuous surge in land prices the talk of rural Australia, Matt is well and truly in the hot seat.

“The growth in rural property values has been unbelievable, it hasn’t taken a breath, even during the drought, which surprised us all,” he said.

“A crystal ball would definitely have come in handy over the past decade! Recently a property in the Yass district tripled in value in just six years – figures like that continue to blow us away.”

As dynamic as it is complex, Matt’s role relies on remaining abreast of the current property market, and over the past six years he’s formed strong relationships with vendors, buyers and agents to try and help gauge the market.

“We analyse market evidence and are fortunate to work with our rural teams for up to the minute information from the ground, but each region is still breaking records and the market moves so quickly – it’s busy!”

He believes the bank’s rural expertise and geographic spread affords the team a distinct competitive advantage and ensures clients benefit from an expert in-house rural property valuation service.

“In addition to working with our rural bankers across Australia, we have access to great resources from our RaboResearch team, which is dedicated to preparing expert rural land market reports.”

The role also affords Matt the opportunity to flex his background in IT project management, with the bank recently partnering with Digital Agricultural Services (DAS) to enable virtual rural property valuations.

“This software is enabling us to undertake property appraisals on a virtual basis when required, which has been extremely timely during Covid lockdowns, we haven’t missed a beat. Developing this partnership has been something I’ve really enjoyed, and something I think will really benefit the bank,” he said.

Physical farm visits, however, remain one of the highlights of the role, and not something that can be replicated.

“I feel fortunate to visit so many farming properties, and I learn something new every time,” Matt said. “It’s exciting to see first-hand what some of our most progressive producers are doing on-farm to improve efficiency, generate wealth, value, and contribute back to rural Australia’s land assets.”

And while Matt has carved a career helping farming families reach some lofty business goals, he is equally as passionate about supporting the more disadvantaged sector of the community.