On Friday 26 July 1996, an advertisement appeared in the pages of the Weekly Times. Placed by Wescorp International on behalf of SAABCO – the South Africa and Australia Breeding Company – it announced a National Embryo Auction to be held that afternoon at 1pm Western Standard Time.
Approximately 650 embryos representing five breeds were on offer. Among them, pictured in that advertisement alongside the Dorper, the South African Mutton Merino, the Boer Goat and the South African Merino, was an animal most Australian farmers had never seen.
The caption read simply: Damara Sheep.
Nobody that day could have known what they were starting. This page exists to tell that story accurately – from the ancient veld of Namibia and the indigenous peoples of the Kaokoveld who were its ancient custodians to the handful of visionary Australians who brought it here against considerable odds, to the breeders who have preserved its extraordinary genetics ever since.
From Veld to Down Under — Damara Fat Tails in Australia is a heritage documentation project working in collaboration with Marianne and Rod Wilkinson of Brae Park Damara as Chief Historians.
Nothing on this page will be published unless it is verified, accurate, and worthy of the story it tells.
If you were there in the early days – as a breeder, an agent, a researcher, or simply someone who believed in this breed before anyone else did – we want to hear from you.
The Damara’s Australian story deserves to be told. We are telling it.
© Written by Keith Layman, Hamilton Ridge Damara Stud, NSW Australia
Image source: australiandorper.com.au— reproduced for historical and educational purposes
