For The Dogs
In the 1800’s Australians began crossing Dingo-blue merle Collies to Dalmations and Black and Tan Kelpies. The result was a dog identical in type and build to the Dingo, only with a thicker set and peculiar markings – and also an excellent worker. The Australian Cattle Dog has been a huge help to the Australian beef industry, enabling farmers to maintain huge herds, because they are able to drive cattle over long distances across rough terrain. They are a robust breed with a high level of energy and a quick intelligence.
George Hall and his family arrived in the New South Wales Colony (Australia) in 1802. By 1825 the Halls had established two cattle stations in the Upper Hunter Valley, and had begun a northward expansion into the Liverpool Plans, New England and Queensland. Getting his cattle to the Sydney markets presented a problem in that thousands of head of cattle had to be moved for thousands of kilometers along unfenced stock routes through sometimes rugged bush and mountain ranges. A note in his own writing, records Thomas Hall’s anger at losing 200 head in scrub.
Thomas addressed the problem by importing several of the dogs used by drovers in Northumberland, his parents’ home country. The family historian, A. J. Howard , gave these blue mottled dogs a name: Northumberland Blue Merle Drovers Dogs . Thomas Hall crossed his Drovers Dogs with dingoes he had tamed, and by 1840 was satisfied with his resulting progeny. During the next thirty six years the Hall’s Heelers, as they became to be known, were used only by the Halls. Given that they were dependent on the dogs, which gave them an advantage over other cattle breeders, it is understandable that the dogs were not distributed beyond the Hall’s properties. It was not until after Thomas Hall’s death in 1870, when the properties went to auction with the stock on them, that Halls Heelers became freely available and were subsequently developed into two modern breeds, the Australian Cattle Dog and the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog.
Robert Kaleski was influential in the Cattle Dog’s early development, and wrote the first standard for the breed. The Australian Cattle Dog is a medium-sized, short coated dog that occurs in two main colour forms. It has either brown or black hair distributed fairly evenly through a white coat, which gives the appearance of a”red” or “blue” dog. It has been nicknamed a “Red Heeler” or “Blue Heeler” on the basis of this colouring. Dogs from a line bred in Queensland, Australia, which were successful at shows and at stud in the 1940’s, were called “Queensland Heelers” to differentiate them from lines bred in New South Wales; this nickname is now occasionally applied to any Australian Cattle Dog.