Australia Welcomes First Llamas in Over a Decade, Enhancing Local Gene Pool

Australia’s llama community is set to receive a signifcant boost with the arrival of fve llamas at the Mickleham Post Entry Quarantine facility, marking the frst such arrival in the country in over ten years. The only centre in Australia equipped to house camelids, Mickleham’s facility has been bustling with activity as biosecurity staff work to ensure these new residents adapt comfortably to their new environment.

Justine Saunders, Deputy Secretary of Biosecurity and Compliance at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, expressed her enthusiasm about the new additions. “This is an exciting development for Australia’s budding llama population, made possible by our robust animal biosecurity system,” stated Ms. Saunders. She emphasized the importance of Australia’s rigorous protocols in maintaining the safety and sustainability of the country’s diverse biodiversity.

Jane Ackland of Everlong Llamas, the importer responsible for these new residents, highlighted the signifcance of this importation for genetic diversity within Australia’s llama breeding programs.

“After a signifcant search, I selected these animals for their quality and genetic diversity,” she explained, noting that the last import of llamas from the USA was in the mid-1990s. “They will bring a unique and transformative change to my breeding program here in Wamboin, NSW.”

The llamas’ journey from a cold Chicago winter to a warm Australian summer was not only long but marked by careful monitoring and testing to ensure their health and safety.

“Despite over 24 hours in transit, the llamas arrived lively and energetic,” Ms. Saunders remarked. Observations of their behaviour indicated that they adjusted well, engaging with their surroundings and displaying playful behaviour.

During their stay at the quarantine facility, the llamas underwent a series of health checks including blood tests for diseases like bluetongue virus, epizootic haemorrhagic disease, and brucellosis. Further testing followed two weeks post-arrival to confrm their health status before they were cleared by biosecurity, following negative test results and a fnal health inspection.

This import marks a signifcant milestone for Australia’s agricultural biodiversity, ensuring the continued vitality and expansion of the local llama population.

Each year, Australia’s biosecurity measures facilitate the safe arrival of a wide array of animals, contributing signifcantly to the country’s rich ecological and agricultural landscape.

By Helen Trustum

The following story was written by Robert Leycester Dawson, son of Robert Barrington Dawson owner of Bentley Station, situated at Bentley. Robert was born in Bowenfels near Lithgow in 1860 and died in 1943 in Lindfeld, Upper North Shore of Sydney.

My father, Robert Barrington Dawson, in the year of 1869, on an offcial visit to the Richmond as Crown Lands Commissioner, rode one day from Casino to Lismore, with Mr C. H. Fawcett, then a Police Magistrate. Between the townships and about 7.5 miles (12 kilometers) from Casino, they turned a short distance off the road to the left and from the ridge (later Armstrongs paddock) obtained a fne view of “The Double Huts Plain” and adjacent beautiful country. My father was astonished when told by his friend that this rich and productive looking land was only held on lease from the Crown by the Runnymede cattle station and therefore still open for free selection. At once he made up his mind to become the owner and there to build his future home. Accordingly in March 1870, he went from

Bellevue, our then home near Grafton to Casino, made a closer inspection of the “Land of Promise” at “Double Huts” and free-selected three 40, 48 and 49 acre blocks thus securing the lagoon and the wooded ridge upon which the future home was to be built. Returning to the Clarence, at the end of April 1870 we left Bellevue for the Richmond, Via Gordon Brook and Camira, our furniture and effects being was sent by horse drays by the usual direct route via The Traveller’s Rest and Myrtle Creek. At Gordon Brook, my mother and I stayed a month with Mr and Mrs

Hawkins Smith and her brother and sister, Anson and Miss Alice Rothery. My father and my brother Arthur David, rode across to Casino, visited the “Double Huts” and Arthur then became a free-selector by taking up a 50 acre block adjoining those already secured by father, I think Arthur’s block took in part of the Horse-shoe Flat and Red Ridge. They returned to Gordon Brook. Nearing the end of May and we then set out for Casino, my father driving the old roan mare and Polly, tandem, in the buggy while I rode Puck and Arthur on his bay pony

We stayed the frst night at the ten-mile outstation (from Gordon Brook 10 miles) /16 kilometers James Saville family (afterwards our neighbours at One Tree Farm). Next night at Camira and next at Myrtle Creek in Ben Sellers accommodation house and the fourth evening we reached Casino. Travelling was slow owing to the rough bush tracks and only here and there was it possible to trot the buggy horses.

At Casino we stayed nearly six months in a cottage close to Britton’s Hotel. Later the cottage housed the frst newspaper,

The “Richmond River Express and Tweed Advertiser”. Arthur and I attended the public school under Mr Peter Walsh.

Late in June we were all invited to spend a week with the Garrard Family at Boorie. We went on horseback as the awful boggy road was quite impassable for vehicles. The horses could hardly struggle through the fearful bogholes at other creeks and gullies. We took our lunch and had it at Bentley which had just been named after my father’s birthplace (Great Bentley Lodge) at Essex in England. The blocks and

By Helen Trustum

bloodwood sleepers for the house were in position and four men were at work.

The remains of Ward Stephens (original owner of Runnymede Station) two shepherd’s huts built during the early forties, were still visible about 20 yards from the west end front of the big house. My father planted his banana ground on the site of Stephen’s sheep yard and for over 20 years a plentiful supply of fruit was the result.

Just before Christmas 1870 my mother was fnding herself very sick and tired of Casino and the life in a poky cottage overlooking the Inn. My mother decided to take the law into her own hands and shift to Bentley. The house was only partly built but the skillion part was habitable though there were no doors or windows and the fooring was only roughly laid. Needless to say, we boys appreciated the change. We got away from school and enjoyed the bush life, tree grubbing and felling for the men in the sawpit sawing the red cedar and bloodwood for the house.

I am afraid that when my father designed the house he did so on too large and expensive a scale for his moderate means and therefore it was years before it was properly completed. His idea was that if he brought his wife and family to a hot climate, the least he could do was to house them comfortably and in a cool building. Hence the wattle and daub walls. Split bloodwood upright lathes in and out of which long blady grass was woven and this was plastered over with puddled clay from a pit on the Red Ridge. The fnished walls were then whitewashed and were about 6 inches thick. It was a slow job. The front verandah is 78 feet long by 9 feet wide. There are four large from rooms, a kitchen at the west in and four skillion rooms The frst roof was of stringy bark all stripped by the Aborigines, most of it by “ Mr Morris King of Woombee”, which is the native name of the place. The bark, though cool, was not satisfactory, the pitch especially on the skillion parts being too fat for bark and leaked. In the summer of 1874-1875 the roof was taken off and replaced by bloodwood shingles, over 20,000 of them. James Page, an expert tradesman, split and put on the shingles with Cosgrove as his helper. At the end of 1914, forty years later, Claude Edwards had galvanized iron put over the shingles. The frst chimneys were wooden but had to be replaced by brick because they caught fre too often and rendered the house unsafe.

For many years the rooms remained unceiled and I don’t think the building was completed till my brother married Brenda Rudder in December 1883 and another wooden kitchen and servants room were added on the back. Owing to his long absences on offcial duties my father was unable to properly supervise the building and other early improvements, so he engaged his old friend

MR A.A. Leycester as Manager and he and his wife came from Sydney and were with us from November 19th 1871 to November 19th 1872. Mr Leycester was a very good amateur carpenter and knew bush life from A to Z. Amongst other things he and Robert Fogwell, from Coraki, constructed the stockyard, bails, crush and gallows. Mr Leycester was a keen sportsman and taught us properly to handle frearms. All my life I have thought myself fortunate to enjoy the company of such a man and absorb bush lore from him during my young days. Arthur and I had then a tutor and it was to take advantage of this for educational purposes that Willie came and stayed at Bentley for about 18 months. The tutor being William James Osbourne Harman, who was born in England and educated at Queen Elizabeth’s Royal Grammar School. Arthur and I went to school under Mr F.R. Newton at Grafton from June to Christmas 1874 and the next year followed Mr Newton to Brockley, in the Big Scrub. This school closed down at the end of 1875 and that completed our education. To be continued -