As well as horses being used for stock work and wild ones being mustered and droved to various sales – sold both here and overseas – horses were widely used in the Snowies to transport sightseers, skiers, scientists, trout fishermen – and trout!
They said “Australia rides on the sheep’s back” but they forgot everything depended on the horse, including moving wool to sell. The horse market was giant too.
Waler meetings often became an adventure. Who’d a’thunk it. Many years ago, Jac and I went to a Society AGM followed by an SGM. It was to haunt us for some time but now we laugh about it.
For decades Toowoomba had one of the biggest horse sales in Australia. The big buyers for overseas as well as buyers for Australia attended. Draughts to ponies all sold well. Auctioneers themselves became very wealthy from the horse trade.
Horses were essential for everyday life, serving in a multitude of roles, with no equivalent today. They had to be safe, dependable, strong, and easy to keep.
Ships were requisitioned by the Navy for war transport of horses and troops. Horse export was part of our economy – most ship crews and horsemen were old hands at the game.
Walers are rare and old-fashioned horses who were developed at a time now long gone. Using horse names from when horses were key may help to create ongoing links to our history.
Scoops were a bit of horse drawn equipment used to scoop up earth, sand, rocks, gravel, mud or snow. These days a bulldozer pushes it out of the way…
Horse bazaars were once the place to be seen. They did a multitude of horse services, primarily sales. Some held a weekly sale, some monthly.
Australia had an extremely high standard of saddlery and harness, once, these places were tremendous employers too.
