<-- HISTORY OF THE KELPIE IN THE UK

The first kelpie that I’m aware of being imported into this country was Wattlevale Sue, who's owner is listed on the pedigree as Linda Fairnes from Cheshire. Sue was exported by Mary Macrabb of the Avenpart stud in Wanganella, N.S.W. The Avenpart stud was founded in 1962 and is based on Scanlon, Glenville and Karrawarra lines. It is a vast 16,500 hectare property where the dogs are used for mustering, yard and shed work as well as running in yard, utility and three-sheep trials. Mary places emphasis on natural working ability combined with good conformation. Wattlevale Sue was followed by Avenpart Peppin and Avenpart Bidgee who were both born in 1982. Peppin's sire, Avenpart Dusty II, was a good-looking red and tan dog who won and was placed in trials as well as staring in the film 'Dusty'. Peppin's dam's sire was Glenville Smoke, a blue and tan, wide casting dog who worked cattle and sheep and would bark in the yards and sheds. Smoke was 2nd in the 1978 National Kelpie trial. Bidgee was a granddaughter of Liscannor Marco who won many trials and was placed in the National Kelpie trial. He was apparently a good covering and anticipating dog who was a very powerful worker on sheep and was the sire of Barambogie Mack and Barambogie Chance. White's Dawn, dam of White's Biddy, also Bidgee's grandsire won the National kelpie trial in 1972 and came 2nd in 1973. Karrawarra Flipper, also a grandsire of Bidgee was another trial winner with a wide cast and medium eye who would bark and back in the yards but was easy to control.

Peppin and Bidgee were imported by Kate Bottoms, a contract shepherdess who later went on to form the Aven UK stud.

An excerpt from Mary’s e-mail explains her criteria for selecting the dogs she sent over :

"When I was asked to select dogs to go over my being born and
raised in Woking I did have an idea of the sizes of fields, and of the work of the border collies. We have paddocks the size of 4,000 acres and we do need eye dogs, but we like them to be able to back sheep and bark when necessary - so the strains I selected were of this nature. The reason why was that the English/Scottish farmers like a dog that they can cast out to muster the fields, but often then have to load a few lambs on to the back of a tractor to go to market or to be put into a barn out of the cold where a bit of force is required.
"Strong eye dogs walk in silently and possibly nose bite one sheep and the others split up in a forceful situation - this is where the command to speak is handy and also if sheep won't go through a gateway you can ask a backing dog to back to just behind the lead sheep which pushes it through and as it returns, forces the others to follow.
"John Brown mainly uses his dogs on cattle and Kate used hers in her contract lambing business. It was really great to meet John Brown last year although we exported the semen (Cottonwood Matt and Boanong Tommy) to him in 1996. Cottonwood Matt is now dead, but he won yard trials and was placed in utility and three-sheep trials as well as being a top station dog and sire."
Mary McCrabb

Kate later imported Avenpart Georgia , sent over in whelp to Sunshine Brew who went back to Elfinvale lines on his dam's side and Liscannor Flint on his sire's side, a good casting dog with plenty of eye and a good walk up. Glendon Kate was also sent sent over in whelp and another dog, of which Kate has particularly fond memories, Glenlogie Bounce. I haven't been able to find much information about the breeding of Glendon Kate and Georgia but Bounce has a very interesting pedigree. He is linebred to Glenlogie Rex, a dog that Jack Bodie -his owner and a very experienced kelpie man, claimed was the cleverest dog he ever owned. Rex was placed 40 times in trials and made the final of the World Championship Trials in New Zealand where he finished 11th in a big field, impressing many New Zealand trialists. He was also a finalist four times in the National Kelpie trial.

Unfortunatly Kate eventually became disullisioned with importing kelpies when other breeders undercut her prices, making it impossible to fund more imports. However, you only have to look at the pedigrees of these early imports to see that Mary and Kate have done a great job in providing a solid foundation of quality kelpie bloodlines in the UK.

Will Evans of the Dragonheart stud in Credigion, Wales, added that, sadly, many of the ensuing kelpie litters weren’t registered by their breeders or were crossed with border collies so that important breeding lines have subsequently been lost.

In 1987 Birgitta Ostergren added to the kelpie gene pool by sending a black and tan male Stormkappens Balleroo to Wales from her Stormkappans Stud in Sweden. Birgitta is aware of Balleroo having at least two litters, he was mated in September 1989 to Lac (UK) Kiri and in March 1991 to Aven (UK) Alpha. These pups were registered with the WKC.

I haven’t as yet been able to contact John Brown in Scotland, but Will Evans bought some of the straws imported by John from Mary Macrabb in the 1990s. The straws were from Boanong Tommy and Cottonwood Matt. Mary describes Tommy (Karrawarra Jake x Karrawarra Megs) as a stylish, wide casting dog with back and bark. Jake, his sire, was a winner of yard trials. Matt (Capree Tex x Cottonwood Polly) was a stylish black and tan dog. A good caster with excellent heading, balance and walk up. He was 3rd Novice at the National Kelpie trial 1994 and 2nd at the Dundonell Yard Trial in 1994 as well as placing in other yard, utility and three sheep trials. Matt worked cattle with 'eye' and nosebite. The Boanong Tommy straws have now all been used in Scotland, but there are still some of the Cottonwood Matt straws left (see stud dogs page for details).

Another import into this country was Scoriochre Cracker (33021), a big black and tan dog who gained a lot of respect for his working qualities and was used widely at stud - he was a strong yard dog who worked both sheep and cattle and would back the cattle as well as the sheep. Cracker was imported by Robert Owen in Wales from John Gedye's Scoriochre stud in Western Victoria. The aim of the Scoriochre stud is to breed the best possible dogs for the largest variety of needs - gutsy, game, bold and obedient, single-handed workers.

In the 1990's Guy Mitchell returned to Devon, having worked sheep in Australia for many years, and brought back with him his two kelpies Elfinvale Milton and Elfinvale Julia. He later imported another bitch, Coleslea Tip, who was in whelp to Davis Buck. A pedigree of Winsland Snip, one of the puppies from this litter is included here.

In the last 5 years more dogs have been imported. Steve and Jenny Andrews of theWoolstone stud near Cheltenham visited Australia and did a good deal of research before choosing to import a young black and tan dog called Karana Krypto from Kevin Howell's Karana stud in New south Wales. Krypto's dam is a full sister to Noel Warner's trial winning dog Rowdy and Krypto is line bred back to the well-respected 1993 National Kelpie Trial winner Capree Watch.

The second import is Boanong Trixie imported by Tracy Huxtable of the Devonairs stud. More details of Trixie can be found on the kelpie breeders page and on Tracie's own Devonairs website, but Oscar is the main sire at James Dudley's Boanong stud and is an good all-round station worker who barks on command and backs in sheds and yard. Trixie was sent over in whelp to Boanong Sam - by Pomanda George and out of Bellrock Anna. Sam is an upstanding red and tan dog. A classic paddock worker with a natural cast and good natural distance. He has good holding ability. More information about Boanong dogs can be found on the Boanong website

Another recent import is the product of an inspired idea from Elidyr stud. A puppy from the Elidyr stud was rabies-jabbed and run on while a puppy from the German Letnetti stud was also rabbies-jabbed and run on. At 10 months the two pups were swapped, therefore bringing new lines into both countries at a very reasonable cost. A quick scan of the wonderful European kelpie Website and a browse through the list of over sixty kelpies will prove that mainland Europe is a real option for the future of kelpie imports to the UK. The name of the imported bitch is Letnetti Baghira. Her dam, Grawoodglen Patsy goes back to mainly Glendon and Rockybar lines and her sire Scandan Ludwig has Pomanda and Swis breeding behind. More information can be obtained from the Letnetti Website

An e-mail from Riccardo Baroni details the story of further imports to the UK. Part of the e-mail is printed below :-

"I live in Lombardy, Northern Italy and got my first Working Kelpie some 5 years ago to work
sheep, nowadays my bitch Lynn is a very good open trial dog and hill worker. I
retained a pup from her last litter in order to have a substitute when her
working career is over.

I got her from a friend of mine living in Central
Italy, Simone Taffora who is an enthusiast trial handler and imported some
fine sheepdogs from the UK. He has had kelpies since 1995 and won many open trials with
them (ISDS type). In 2001 he went to Scotland to visit Janet Beale's Astra
Sheepdog stud and buy some sheepdogs. A friendship was born and later that year
Janet came to Italy for a clinic, she was amazed by the quality of our
kelpies and decided to buy Simone's top brace, Buster and his full-sister
Camilla (Yeralda Chum x Stormkappans Patya). Simone agreed to sell Buster but
just wanted to loan Camilla for the 2002 nurseries in Scotland. Unfortunately Camilla died of
rat poisoning a few weeks before leaving but Buster went up there together with
Winganna Spider, an Aussie import that Simone had previously given to another handler who
treated her poorly. Just a few weeks after their arrival in Scotland
they had a litter. Janet retained a pup, Prince, that she later sold for a good
price, while Buster and Spider still work on a large farm near Stirling
where they were sent by Janet. The farm is run by an Irish contract
shepherd -Kenny- who thinks of Buster as his best hill dog. Buster injured a front leg some
months ago and can no longer cope with the hardest job in the
farm but as far as I know he is still Kenny's favourite."

I am currently in the process of researching all the kelpie lines brought into this country so far and would be very grateful of any contributions including pictures and pedigrees.

There are various different versions of where the original kelpies came from, how they were bred and who imported them, but this is the version that seems to hold the most credence.

In 1870, Mr Allen of Geraldra Station in New South Wales imported two smooth-coated prick-eared black and tan sheepdogs from Scotland. Their names were Brutus and Jenny and they produced a litter on board ship of mainly black and tan pups, but with one red-coloured pup. Meanwhile, another pair of sheepdogs had been imported into Victoria that produced a puppy by the name of Kelpie, who was eventually bought by Mr J D Gleeson.

When Kelpie was mated to one of the Brutus and Jenny pups, called Caesar, she produced another another black and tan bitch, called Kelpie after her dam. This Kelpie was given to Mr King, who lived at Humbug Creek near Condobolin, NSW. Mr King went on to win the first sheepdog trials in Australia, held at Forbes in 1872 with Kelpie. Her impressive win made her famous and she went on to have many litters from which the pups were known as Kelpie’s pups, and later just kelpies.

One of Kelpie’s pups, Sally, was mated to Moss, a black dog from a pair of collies of the Rutherford strain bred in Sutherland, Scotland, which had been imported by J Rutherford to Yarrawonga station in NSW. One of the pups from the ensuing litter was called Barb. Barb, another black dog also made a name for himself as a great sheepdog and black pups from this line were known at the time as barbs. Kelpies and barbs gradually became recognised as a breed apart from Collies because of their smooth-coat, prick-ears and colour - mainly black and tan, black, red and occasionally blue.

When Moss was mated to King’s Kelpie they produced Clyde, sire of another kelpie legend, Coil, often called ‘the immortal Coil’. Coil was a blue dog, thought to be one of the greatest ever kelpies. In the Sydney sheepdog trials in 1898 he gained maximum (100) points on the first day, but was hit by a taxi in the evening, breaking a leg. His owner decided to run him in the final the next day, again scoring maximum points and winning the trial with a record 200 points.

King and his partner Mcleod went on to breed kelpies, barbs and smooth-coated collies, importing such famous collies as Hindhope Jed and Wallace’s Moss, but although these collies were highest quality imports King and Mcleod rated the kelpie, Biddy Blue as the "best worker ever seen in Australia". They used to demonstrate the working abilities of their kelpies by ‘tinning the chicken’ - making a dog drive a chicken into a jam tin without touching the tin or chicken.

There is no doubt that these early kelpies were at times crossed with border collies and also with dingos, finally producing the tough, versatile worker that is today’s kelpie - a dog that is capable of working tirelessly in the unremitting heat of the Australian outback and of gathering, penning, loading and driving the millions of sheep which form the basis of the Australian livestock industry as well as any sheepdog in the world.

One of the traits developed in the kelpie was the ability to problem-solve for itself, a consequence of having to muster vast flocks of sheep without much assistance from the handler, thus resulting in a dog which actually prefers to think for himself. The modern kelpie has also retained a degree of eye and style and usually prefers to work on its feet, quite often using a bark instead of a bite to move difficult sheep.

More details about the great kelpies of the past and the history of many famous kelpie studs can be found on Stephen and Mary Bilson's excellent Kelpie History website at
www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/6392/