Newhaven Station is on the traditional lands of the Ngalia-Warlpiri/Luritja people where native title was acknowledged in 2010. Newhaven is in the Tanami region north west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and is now a conservation reserve.
An understanding of horse history is key to an appreciation of why our Waler horses are so important and advocated for so that we may still have them in the future.
Mount Weld since 2011 has been a mine site in Western Australia leased by Lynas Rare Earths. It’s still a pastoral property too, this has been its history for over a century.
The name Waler is derived from New South Waler – meaning a horse bred in NSW, as the colony was first referred to – where horses were shipped from on the eastern seaboard, NSW then including Qld. It was coined as a term for horses sent overseas for remounts for the British armies in China and India, and for Indian regiments. Rajahs as well as the English in India bought Waler ponies for polo. We were sending horses away by the 1840’s – it quickly became a major trade for Australia.
Todd River Downs (TRD) is approximately 155km east of Alice Springs, a remote station at the edge of the Simpson Desert, Central Arrente country (the traditional owners are the Johnson family).
The Garden Station is east of Alice Springs, snugged into the MacDonnell Ranges. It got its name as market gardens there once supplied the nearby mining community of Arltunga of some 300 people. It is now a cattle station.
We have direct descendants of those horses. Andrew Tennant and John Love took a big mob of horses from South Australia to Undoolya, next door to The Garden, in 1880.
Andrew Tennant and John Love took a big mob of horses to Undoolya, next door to The Garden, in 1880. They were from South Australia, being mostly Thoroughbreds (as they were then, not all registered) and good carriage and hunter types of roadster breeding. Some had a significant amount of Timor blood being from Horse Peninsula (now Coffin Bay).
Fascinating horse trading history by Janet Lane.
Immerse yourself in the riches of our horse trade to Japan, the Dutch East Indies, Siam, Abyssinia. Read about our early Horse Traders, and be ready to settle in for a fabulous insight into our early history.
Suffolk blood went to the NT with the first horses taken there, the bloodlines were Ned Bagot’s stallions, being the preferred draught for crossing with lighter mares.
The Roadster was an active, robust horse with excellent action – and good looking. They are an important ancestor of the Waler.
