Trevor Basset of Elders Deniliquin has been awarded the Howard Gardner Award for FY26, recognised for the time he invests mentoring the next generation of AuctionsPlus assessors coming through the ranks.The award, named in honour of AuctionsPlus founding CEO Howard Gardner, celebrates an assessor who actively supports new entrants to the industry, including completing parallels and signing off new assessors as they build their capability and confidence within the network.
Mr Basset has assessed sheep for AuctionsPlus since 1992, and has completed 237 cattle and 575 sheep assessments over the past decade. In FY26 alone he assessed 124 head of cattle and 21,820 head of sheep.
He began his career in the livestock industry in 1988, working across several agencies before joining Elders, where he has spent the past 20 years, based in Deniliquin.
Roughly a quarter of his workload now goes towards training and mentoring assessors coming through the Elders network, a role he clearly gets a kick out of.
"Absolutely, 100%," Mr Basset said, when asked if he found the mentoring side of the job satisfying.
He has also helped facilitate AuctionsPlus assessor courses for around three to four years, helping agents get across the products and platforms available to them.
Mr Basset said the biggest shift he'd seen in recent years was the uptake of Live Assess, and he's become a vocal advocate for the tool with agents still on the fence, working through hesitation one on one where it comes up.
Having started out in the industry well before digital platforms existed, Mr Basset said the pace of change was simply part of the job now.
"The platform has changed significantly," Mr Basset said. "It's just the way the world's going. You've just got to adapt. If you don't adapt, you get run over."
Despite the technology shift, he said the fundamentals of assessing livestock hadn't changed, only the volume of information now expected on the platform.
AuctionsPlus CEO Wyn Snyman said Mr Basset's contribution to the network went beyond his own assessment numbers.
"It's a pleasure to recognise the continuing work of Trevor to upskill and mentor the next generation of livestock agents," Mr Snyman said. "His commitment to this endeavour and to the AuctionsPlus platform hasn't gone unnoticed, and we congratulate him for his lasting positive impact on the industry."
Top Throughput Cattle Assessor: Darryl Napper
Top Throughput Sheep Assessor: Kelvin Donnan
Top Throughput Cattle Agency and Top Throughput Combined Livestock Agency: Davidson Cameron & Co
Top Throughput Sheep Agency: Spence Dix & Co Keith
Top Throughput Machinery Agency: Phillips Livestock & Auctions
Howard Gardner Award: Trevor Basset
Gary Dick Award: James Tierney
Young Gun Award: Charlie Bible
Industry Woman of the Year: Sam Platts
Machinery Excellence Award: Angus Newcombe
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