Halls Heeler
Encyclopedia
The Halls Heeler was a dog bred by Thomas Simpson Hall to herd cattle on the Hall family's extensive properties in north-western New South Wales
in the 19th century. On Dartbrook Station, in the Upper Hunter Valley
, Hall selectively crossed the offspring of Northumberland Drover's Dogs that he had imported, with progeny of dingo
es that he had tamed. By 1840 he had bred the type of dog that he needed to control cattle on the massive runs that his family owned, and until he died in 1870 few of these dogs were owned and used by anyone outside the Hall family and their workers. However the death of Thomas Hall and the break-up of the Hall estate coincided with the development of the dog show
, and an interest in breeding dogs to specific criteria or standards. The Halls Heeler was further developed into two contemporary dog breeds the Australian Cattle Dog
and the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
.
Colony in 1802. By 1825, George's son Thomas Simpson Hall and some of his older brothers had established two cattle stations in the Upper Hunter Valley, Gundebri near the present day Merriwa
, and Dartbrook near Aberdeen
. In the 1928 census Thomas Hall is described as 20 years old, and the manager of Dartbrook. Using this property as a home base, Hall began a northward expansion into the Liverpool Plains
, New England
and Queensland
, setting up properties for the family and eventually controlling over a million acres of good grazing land.
On Dartbrook Thomas Hall set about breeding the cattle needed to stock these extensive holdings, and developed a herd of polled shorthorn cattle
from stock imported from Durham
in 1930. Getting the cattle to the Sydney
markets presented a problem in that thousands of head of cattle had to be moved for thousands of kilometres along unfenced stock route
s through sometimes rugged bush and mountain ranges. A note, in his own writing, records Thomas Hall's anger at losing 200 head in scrub
. A droving
dog was desperately needed but the colonial working dogs are understood to have been of Old English Sheepdog
type (commonly referred to as Smithfields, descendants of these dogs still exist) useful only over short distances and for yard work with domesticated cattle. Thomas Hall addressed the problem by importing several of the dogs used by drovers in Northumberland
, his parents’ home county. At this time dogs were generally described by their job, regardless of whether they constituted a ‘breed’ as it is currently understood, and in the manner of the time these blue mottled dogs were known as the Northumberland Blue Merle Drovers Dog.
Thomas Hall crossed his Drovers Dogs with dingo
es he had tamed and then continued to selectively cross breed until 1840, when he was satisfied with his resultant breed. This working cattle dog was so suited to the Hall's needs that no breed changes were considered necessary by Thomas for the rest of his life. During the next thirty years, the Halls Heelers, as they became known, were used only by the Halls and those who worked for them. 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.
Jack Timmins was a contract drover working in the Upper Hunter Valley and was employed by the Hall family to take cattle to the Sydney markets. In the late 1840s he obtained a pair of Halls Heelers, from which he bred a line of dogs that he described as "great biters", a characteristic which led to the dogs being called Timmins Biters. Robert Kaleski referred to them as "wonderful workers" in an article titled The Working Dogs of Australia in 1911. Other Hall associates, particularly those on properties distant from Dartbrook near the Queensland border, were also breeding their own dogs from Halls Heeler stock.
In 1976 a monument to Thomas Hall's achievement was erected on Dartbrook Road at the Blue Heeler Bridge in Dartbrook, New South Wales. The plaque inscription says: "This plaque presented by The Australian Cattle Society of NSW commemorates Thomas S. Hall of Dartbrook who in 1840 in this area carried out his breeding experiments with the native dog the dingo and a pair of smooth coated blue merle collies. These dogs known as Halls Heelers became the foundation of today's breed the Australian Cattle Dog."
to refer to the dogs being bred from bloodlines originating from Thomas Hall's "heelers", and prominent members of the group concentrated on breeding these lines. Of these breeders, the Bagust family was the most influential. Robert Kaleski
, of Moorebank
, at the time a young associate of Harry Bagust, noted that in 1893 cattle dog breeders had begun to "fix the type" so he drew up a standard for them on those lines.
Selective breeding of those dogs that were born bob-tailed or without tails from some point in the late 19th century led to the development of the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is recognised by the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog Club of New South Wales and by the Australian National Kennel Council
in the Working Dogs Group
, and it was provisionally accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale
in 2005, in Group 1, Section 2 : Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs) as breed number 351. The breed has been listed and promoted as a rare breed
pet.
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
in the 19th century. On Dartbrook Station, in the Upper Hunter Valley
Hunter Valley
The Hunter Region, more commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney with an approximate population of 645,395 people. Most of the population of the Hunter Region lives within of the coast, with 55% of the entire...
, Hall selectively crossed the offspring of Northumberland Drover's Dogs that he had imported, with progeny of dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
es that he had tamed. By 1840 he had bred the type of dog that he needed to control cattle on the massive runs that his family owned, and until he died in 1870 few of these dogs were owned and used by anyone outside the Hall family and their workers. However the death of Thomas Hall and the break-up of the Hall estate coincided with the development of the dog show
Conformation show
Conformation shows, also referred to as breed shows, are a kind of dog show in which a judge familiar with a specific dog breed evaluates individual purebred dogs for how well the dogs conform to the established breed type for their breed, as described in a breed's individual breed standard.A...
, and an interest in breeding dogs to specific criteria or standards. The Halls Heeler was further developed into two contemporary dog breeds the Australian Cattle Dog
Australian Cattle Dog
The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. In the 19th century, New South Wales cattle farmer Thomas Hall crossed the dogs used by drovers in his parents' home county, Northumberland, with...
and the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a bobtailed, medium sized breed of dog. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was developed in Australia to herd cattle, and descends from crosses between European herding dogs and the Australian dingo.- Appearance :...
.
History
George Hall and his family arrived in the New South WalesNew South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
Colony in 1802. By 1825, George's son Thomas Simpson Hall and some of his older brothers had established two cattle stations in the Upper Hunter Valley, Gundebri near the present day Merriwa
Merriwa, New South Wales
Merriwa is a town in the far west of the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, Australia, in Upper Hunter Shire. It is located on the Golden Highway, 273 kilometres northwest of Sydney and about half way between Newcastle and Dubbo...
, and Dartbrook near Aberdeen
Aberdeen, New South Wales
Aberdeen is a small town in the upper Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia, in Upper Hunter Shire. It is located about 12 kilometres north of Muswellbrook on the New England Highway. Aberdeen is named after Aberdeen, Scotland. At the 2006 census, Aberdeen had a population of...
. In the 1928 census Thomas Hall is described as 20 years old, and the manager of Dartbrook. Using this property as a home base, Hall began a northward expansion into the Liverpool Plains
Liverpool Plains
The Liverpool Plains is a geographical area and Local Government Area in the North West Slopes, New South Wales.The Shire was formed on 17 March 2004 by the amalgamation of Quirindi Shire with parts of three other shires: Parry, Murrurundi and Gunnedah.- Main towns :* Quirindi* Ardglen*...
, New England
New England (Australia)
New England or New England North West is the name given to a generally undefined region about 60 kilometres inland, that includes the Northern Tablelands and the North West Slopes regions in the north of the state of New South Wales, Australia.-History:The region has been occupied by Indigenous...
and Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, setting up properties for the family and eventually controlling over a million acres of good grazing land.
On Dartbrook Thomas Hall set about breeding the cattle needed to stock these extensive holdings, and developed a herd of polled shorthorn cattle
Shorthorn
The Shorthorn breed of cattle originated in the North East of England in the late 18th century. The breed was developed as dual purpose, suitable for both dairy and beef production; however there were always certain blood lines within the breed which emphasised one quality or the other...
from stock imported from Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
in 1930. Getting the cattle to the Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
markets presented a problem in that thousands of head of cattle had to be moved for thousands of kilometres along unfenced stock route
Stock route
In Australia, the Travelling Stock Route is an authorised thoroughfare for the walking of domestic livestock such as sheep or cattle from one location to another...
s through sometimes rugged bush and mountain ranges. A note, in his own writing, records Thomas Hall's anger at losing 200 head in scrub
Shrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub or brush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or be the result of human activity...
. A droving
Droving
Droving is the practice of moving livestock over large distances by walking them "on the hoof".Droving stock to market, usually on foot and often with the aid of dogs, has a very long history in the old world...
dog was desperately needed but the colonial working dogs are understood to have been of Old English Sheepdog
Old English Sheepdog
The Old English Sheepdog is a large breed of dog which was developed in England from early herding types of dog. The Old English Sheepdog has very long fur covering the face and eyes...
type (commonly referred to as Smithfields, descendants of these dogs still exist) useful only over short distances and for yard work with domesticated cattle. Thomas Hall addressed the problem by importing several of the dogs used by drovers in Northumberland
Northumberland
Northumberland is the northernmost ceremonial county and a unitary district in North East England. For Eurostat purposes Northumberland is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "Northumberland and Tyne and Wear" NUTS 2 region...
, his parents’ home county. At this time dogs were generally described by their job, regardless of whether they constituted a ‘breed’ as it is currently understood, and in the manner of the time these blue mottled dogs were known as the Northumberland Blue Merle Drovers Dog.
Thomas Hall crossed his Drovers Dogs with dingo
Dingo
The Australian Dingo or Warrigal is a free-roaming wild dog unique to the continent of Australia, mainly found in the outback. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to...
es he had tamed and then continued to selectively cross breed until 1840, when he was satisfied with his resultant breed. This working cattle dog was so suited to the Hall's needs that no breed changes were considered necessary by Thomas for the rest of his life. During the next thirty years, the Halls Heelers, as they became known, were used only by the Halls and those who worked for them. 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.
Jack Timmins was a contract drover working in the Upper Hunter Valley and was employed by the Hall family to take cattle to the Sydney markets. In the late 1840s he obtained a pair of Halls Heelers, from which he bred a line of dogs that he described as "great biters", a characteristic which led to the dogs being called Timmins Biters. Robert Kaleski referred to them as "wonderful workers" in an article titled The Working Dogs of Australia in 1911. Other Hall associates, particularly those on properties distant from Dartbrook near the Queensland border, were also breeding their own dogs from Halls Heeler stock.
In 1976 a monument to Thomas Hall's achievement was erected on Dartbrook Road at the Blue Heeler Bridge in Dartbrook, New South Wales. The plaque inscription says: "This plaque presented by The Australian Cattle Society of NSW commemorates Thomas S. Hall of Dartbrook who in 1840 in this area carried out his breeding experiments with the native dog the dingo and a pair of smooth coated blue merle collies. These dogs known as Halls Heelers became the foundation of today's breed the Australian Cattle Dog."
Appearance
While dogs were not routinely bred for consistent appearance before the end of the 19th century, the Halls Heeler was described as a thick set dingo, either mottled blue or red in appearance.Descendants
By the 1890s, the dogs had attracted the attention of the Cattle Dog Club of Sydney, a group of men with a recreational interest in the new practice of showing dogs competitively. They reportedly adopted the term Australian Cattle DogAustralian Cattle Dog
The Australian Cattle Dog is a breed of herding dog originally developed in Australia for droving cattle over long distances across rough terrain. In the 19th century, New South Wales cattle farmer Thomas Hall crossed the dogs used by drovers in his parents' home county, Northumberland, with...
to refer to the dogs being bred from bloodlines originating from Thomas Hall's "heelers", and prominent members of the group concentrated on breeding these lines. Of these breeders, the Bagust family was the most influential. Robert Kaleski
Robert Kaleski
Robert Kaleski was a self-taught writer, bushman, environmentalist and canine authority living in New South Wales at the turn of the nineteenth century...
, of Moorebank
Moorebank, New South Wales
Moorebank is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Moorebank is located 27 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Liverpool....
, at the time a young associate of Harry Bagust, noted that in 1893 cattle dog breeders had begun to "fix the type" so he drew up a standard for them on those lines.
Selective breeding of those dogs that were born bob-tailed or without tails from some point in the late 19th century led to the development of the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog
The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is a bobtailed, medium sized breed of dog. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog was developed in Australia to herd cattle, and descends from crosses between European herding dogs and the Australian dingo.- Appearance :...
. The Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog is recognised by the Australian Stumpy Tail Cattle Dog Club of New South Wales and by the Australian National Kennel Council
Australian National Kennel Council
The Australian National Kennel Council is the peak body in Australia responsible for promoting breeding, showing, trialling, obedience, and other canine-related activities and the ownership of temperamentally and physically sound purebred dogs by individuals across Australia. It was formed in...
in the Working Dogs Group
Working Group (dogs)
Working Group is the name of a breed Group of dogs, used by kennel clubs to classify a defined collection of dog breeds. Most major English-language kennel clubs include a Working Group, although different kennel clubs may not include the same breeds in their Working Group. Working Group does not...
, and it was provisionally accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale
Fédération Cynologique Internationale
Fédération Cynologique Internationale is an international federation of kennel clubs based in Thuin, Belgium. The English language translation, World Canine Organisation, is not often used.Its goals are described in Article 2 of their regulations:...
in 2005, in Group 1, Section 2 : Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs) as breed number 351. The breed has been listed and promoted as a rare breed
Rare breed (dog)
Rare breed is any breed of dog that is small in number. Since dogs have greater genetic variability than other domesticated animals the number of possible breeds is vast...
pet.