FOUNDATION WALER PROPERTIES
A station by station record of the foundation generation of wild captured horses from which the Waler studbook was conceived. The foundation generation of Walers in this database come from stations with a documented history of breeding Waler horses from the earliest arrival of horses into the area, where the horses have remained isolated from modern breeds coming into Australia post early 1950s and thus continued to breed true to the old bloodlines.
The Garden
Northern Territory
The Garden Station is 117km north-east of Alice Springs, in the MacDonnell ranges. The Garden got its name as market gardens there once supplied the nearby Arltunga mining community of some 300 peo…
Jinka
Northern Territory
Jinka station (Ilperle, NT) is approximately 340km north north-west of Alice Springs. Jervois, the adjoining station, is 380km from Alice. Mining was carried out on both places, then pastoral lease…
Cordillo Downs
South Australia
Cordillo Downs is both a pastoral lease currently operating as a cattle station and a formal bounded locality in SA. Once Australia’s largest sheep station, in the 1880s a record over 85,000 shee…
Mt Riddock
Northern Territory
Established in the early 1900s, Mt Riddock Station is currently a cattle station. Located north-west of Alice Springs, the original plan was to prospect for gold at Artlunga but supplying the miner…
GoGo Station
Western Australia
GoGo Station is a pastoral lease that has operated as a cattle station.
…Todd River Downs
Northern Territory
Todd River Downs is east of Alice Springs, a remote station at the edge of the Simpson Desert, Central Arrente country (in the Pmere Nyente ALT). TRD came into being as a station in 1954 when the f…
Mt Weld
Western Australia
Mount Weld cattle station is now also a mine site, located south of Laverton in WA.
…Newhaven Station
Northern Territory
Newhaven is in the Tanami Desert, about 300 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs, and about 80km from the Aboriginal Community of Yuendumu. The property was taken up for pastoral purposes by Alex…
Loves Creek Station
Northern Territory
Loves Creek Station is one of the earliest pastoral leases in Central Australia, once covering nearly 4000 sq km of prime horse breeding territory.
…Yambah Station
Northern Territory
Yambah, also spelled Yamba, is a cattle station located approximately 63km north of Alice Springs, in the Strangways Range and comprises approximately 2,310km. It’s a pastoral lease and was held…
Lyndavale Station
Northern Territory
260km south-west of Alice Springs, Lyndavale Station was established during a period of rapid pastoral expansion in central Australia in the 1930s/40s, along with Angas Downs, Curtin Springs and Mo…
Wilpena Pound
South Australia
Wilpena Pound is in the heart of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park.
…Ringwood Station
Northern Territory
Ringwood Station is a pastoral lease located east of Alice Springs, running cattle.
…Mabel Creek Station
South Australia
Mabel Creek Station is a cattle grazing property near Coober Pedy.
…Hermannsburg
Northern Territory
Hermannsburg is south-west of Alice Springs, on the Finke River within the MacDonnell Ranges.
…Callide Range
Queensland
The Callide Range in eastern Queensland forms part of the Great Dividing Range, running approximately 100km inland and parallel to the coast.
…Snowy Mountains
New South Wales
The Snowy Mountain range is part of the Australian Alpine region in southern New South Wales, with the Murray, Murrumbidgee and Tumut Rivers rising on the slopes and flowing inland and the Snowy Ri…
APY Lands
South Australia
Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands cover 103,000 square kilometres in the northwest of South Australia – about 10.4% of the state.
…Unmatched
Various
This section records horses where insufficient information exists but we strongly believe a horse originated from one of our named properties or an as yet unrecognised property or area, ideally sup…
Why were these stations used to source our foundation Waler generation?
These stations were used as our research indicates they are as good a source of horses in direct descent of those in Australia from the nineteenth and early twentieth century (when horses were being used and bred for the domestic and overseas trade) as it is possible to have given the passage of time.
This archival research has been supported by oral history where possible, and it is ongoing in order to keep our Walers as genetically diverse and hardy as they were, old bloodlines need to be added to our breeding populations where we can identify them. It is still a race against time as wild roaming horses are a declared pest animal and subject to eradication.
Living as a free roaming population also prevented these horse herds becoming inbred (the least of any breed in the world) and kept them strong, wise and free of problems as well as being good doers and sure footed. They are also remote and therefore isolated, so new to Australia breeds are not in the genetic make-up of the horses roaming there. Essentially, they represent bloodlines from before 1950.
After the 1950s, with the arrival of mechanisation, horses largely went out of use as they needed to earn their keep. Many were simply let go. When horses came back into fashion for leisure use, imported stock started arriving and being bred into the horses left in domestic situations, and if let go or otherwise able to roam they mixed in with feral horses where those herds were not separated by the natural barriers of mountain ranges and desert country.
Australia was settled at a time of a horse renaissance around the world, so we had the best of the best from which to create our unique Waler breed. These isolated herds represent a time-warp of genetics, the most diverse now of any horse population anywhere. Efforts to save the Waler breed commenced in the 1980s and continues today. The more engagement we can have from the public the more chance there is of success.
Anyone who wants future generations to have the Waler, please speak up about and for them: raise their profile, educate our children about them.
Above all, anyone who is associated with the horse world and finds the Walers suitable for their pursuit of interest, please seek out a Waler. Without a job, rare breeds disappear.