Clarence White of Menck White Auctioneers has been crowned Australasia’s top auctioneer at the 2022 Australasian Auctioneers Championships which took place in Sydney this week.
Mr White, competing for NSW, battled it out against 13 other auctioneers of the highest calibre over the two-day event convened by the REIA and REINZ and hosted by the REINSW at Royal Randwick Racecourse.
Clarence has competed in the AUSTROS several times in the past, but the winner’s crown had remained elusive until this week when his perseverance provided that all important perfect performance leading to his jubilant win.
“I’m incredibly humbled, honoured and grateful. This has been 8 years in the making. It’s something I have been dreaming about, working towards and training for for a long time,” says Clarence. “I have been close on a couple of prior occasions, so I’m enormously proud to have finally secured the win.
In auctioneering circles, this is the award everyone covets and it is extremely difficult to win. The calibre of the competitors, the testing nature of the bidding sequences and challenges, and the overall test of remaining calm under pressure, it all adds up to make this a very formidable yet rewarding competition.
Clarence went on to explain how he navigated the competition, “We encountered two very challenging bidding sequences in the heat and final. Both were extraordinarily athletic in a numerical sense with specific traps and challenges added for extra pressure. I was pretty happy with how I navigated the scripts. There were some really stretching moments but I feel like I managed to stay focused and in the moment.”
Clarence, a five-time winner of the REINSW Award for Excellence in Auctioneering (2014, 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2022) is one of Australia’s leading real estate auctioneers. He spent 4 years calling auctions for McGrath and a further two years for Bresic Whitney before establishing his own independent auction business in 2018, joining forces with business partner Paul Menck to form Menck White Auctioneers in 2020.
"This was my 5th time competing at the Australasian Championships, I have made the top 5 final on three occasions and been very close on two prior occasions before finally securing the win this time.”
"The thrill of standing up to compete against the best of the best is difficult to put into words. It’s the ultimate rush. And to secure the win is something I am immensely proud of and grateful for," he said.
"People probably don’t realise the work that goes into this; they only see the end result; this is the culmination of weekly training for literally years that has led up to this point."
Clarence works with dedicated agents in Sydney’s key prestige marketplaces in Eastern Suburbs, Inner west, North Shore and Northern Beaches. In addition to his auctioneering work Clarence has held real estate roles as sales agent, sales manager, operations manager and general manager, giving him a depth of knowledge and experience in real estate that enables him to value add around the auction process by assisting with pre-auction, auction-floor and post-auction conversations, negotiations, strategy and training.
"Auction competitions play a vital role in sharpening our tools and ensuring we are ready for literally any situation that may arise out in the field. Truth is often stranger than fiction on auction day; we see all sorts of wild and unusual situations play out at times, and those unusual challenges don’t come up often, some of them you might only see once in your career, but it pays to be ready when they pop up. So the competition framework helps us by throwing up those unusual challenges before we ever encounter them in the field. It promotes critical thinking, self evaluation and innovation in preparedness for the wild, the weird and the whacky. And it also builds and trains the muscle of ‘thinking on your feet’."
The Australasian Auctioneering Championships (AUSTROS) is an annual event representing the most skilled and professional auctioneers that New Zealand and Australia has to offer. Next year’s AUSTROS will take place in New Zealand.