OLD ENGLISH SHEEPDOG - HISTORY
History - Australia
It was during the 1840-70’s that the “Bobtail” was introduced to New South Wales. These dogs accompanied emigrant farm workers that were encouraged to migrate from Great Britain to seek a better life and help establish a sheep industry on the pastures west of the Great Dividing Range.
Most of these men were employed as shepherds. They lived a lonely life tending the flocks assisted by Collies and “Bobtails”. Rations of flour, sugar, tea and tobacco were delivered to their huts weekly or once a month.
This was a welcome break for the shepherd; he had someone to talk to other than his dog and he received news from the homestead and the outside world.
A poem, "The Old Bark Hut", was written in the shepherding days – when fences were few and far between - and is Anon although some verses are attributed to particular authors in different versions. Here's the 2nd verse of the Poem.
"Ten pounds of flour, ten pounds of meat
some sugar and some tea
Are all they give to a hungry man
to last till the seventh day"
The Shepherds, some of whom were Chinese Indentured Laborers, (ref: The Tao of Shepherding by John Donnelly), and Convict indentured laborers, as well as free settlers, had a difficult and solitary job. The shepherd and his dog had to protect the sheep from the predation of dingoes and attacks from tribes of aborigines.
Banjo Patterson, when a small boy, (1860 – 1870) had his first introduction to the dog world via two Old English Sheepdogs, in his time called Rough English Sheepdogs, which were owned by an old time expired shepherd and labourer employed on his father’s property “Illalong”. One of his boyhood duties was to take supplies out to the shepherd's slab hut. This introduction is recorded in his writings.
With the advent of fencing on the sheep stations, the shepherd and his dog were no longer required. A different type of dog was now needed to handle sheep for the tasks of mustering, driving and yarding. The Old English Sheepdog was used to cross with other breeds to find a suitable dog. These crosses were found unsatisfactory; they bit like sharks and wee too rough with the sheep. Eventually the “Kelpie” evolved to become Australia’s premier sheepdog.
The Old Bark Hut
Detail from "The Old Bark Hut"
by Lionel Arthur Lindsay, dry point etching
(from a private collection)
The Old English
Sheepdog nearly disappeared from
the Australian scene when the pastoral shepherds were superceded by
fenced sheep stations. During the period of 1900 to 1960 the breed made
no great
progress.
It was not until the 1960s that the breed started to make
strides in show circles. Because of this, Australia, in 1968, saw the
emergence of the first specialist club for the breed, “The Old English
Sheepdog Club of South Australia”.
Shortly afterwards, “The Old English
Sheepdog Club of Victoria” was formed.
In 1970 owners of “Bobtails”
in New South Wales followed suit with the establishment of a specialist
club for New South Wales – simply called “The Old English Sheepdog
Club”. This name was changed in 1994 to “The Old English Sheepdog Club
(NSW)" to comply with ANKC requirements.
| 
History
