History

History

The first Europeans to take up land at Uardry were John Ray and Henry Angel. Ray arrived in 1840, Angel following four years later. Ray and Angel were cattle breeders and reaped the benefits of the 1850s goldrush by selling stock to hungry miners on the New South Wales and Victorian goldfields.

In the early 1860s Uardry was broken up into smaller 320 acre blocks. It has taken more than 100 years for the original Uardry boundaries to be consolidated again into one block.

In 1864, Angel and Ray sold their properties and lease holding to the partnership of Thomas and William Wragge and John and James Hearn for 1,000 pounds. For the next 11 years, the Wragge and Hearn partnership ran the property changing the name to Wardry. Some time later, the name was changed to Uardry (Aboriginal for Yellow-Box tree) when a land surveyor showed the name clashed with another Wardry further north.

It was the Wragge and Hearn partnership that introduced merino sheep to Uardry in 1864. They bought 5,000 four-year old ewes from the Peppin Brothers of Wanganella.

Charles Mills, Andrew Neilson and William Smith became the new owners of Uardry in 1875. Charles Mills and Andrew Neilson were particularly skilled woolmen and through their guidance, Uardry began to develop as a stud of major significance.

Mills and Neilson together evolved the Uardry Merino as a distinct strain; big-framed, with bold fronts and good folds, the wool was long stapled, dense and of excellent quality. Tremendous importance was placed on the character and handle of the wool. The records show that for the first 45 years, no Australian-bred sheep were introduced to Uardry. According to Charles Mills' diaries up to 1909, the only introduction in Uardry's first 45 years of evolution were two early Rambouillets, one discarded early, the other used to breed up an American flock of 500 ewes some years later. A Saxon ram was introduced after the original Rambouillets. This important fact forms the basis for the prepotency of the Uardry stock.

On the deaths of his partners, Charles Mills bought out their shares and with the assistance of his eldest son, Ainslie, continued to develop the stud further. When Ainslie died of appendicitis in 1908, his brother Neilson took up the reins and he worked closely with his father for 8 years, absorbing much of Charles Mills' knowledge and experience.

Following Charles' retirement in 1909, Neilson Mills introduced nine Boonoke rams. Another infusion of new blood during Neilson's era was from Haddon Rig. The other purchase of significance was a pen of rams and some ewes from the Murgha stud dispersal of 1921. From this pen of rams purchased, one in particular stood out. He became the Grass-Fed Champion at Sydney in 1923 and eventually the Grand Champion Ram. He sired many top sheep and was the grandsire of Uardry 0.1 - the ram on the Australian Shilling coin.

In 1916, on the death of his father, Neilson was appointed Managing Director of Charles Mills (Uardry) Limited, the name under which the stud now traded.

A second stud of Murgha (Wanganella) blood, called Pemblegong, was started from the Murgha dispersal in 1921 on the Pemblegong property just a few miles away. The property which split the two, Burrabogie, was also acquired. Pemblegong sheep were noted for their large frames and were well covered with medium to strong medium wool of high character and good colour. Almost immediately the stud began to succeed with a classic win at the 1923 Sydney Sheep Show when Pemblegong No. 1 was awarded the Grand Championship. Two years later, Pemblegong 3.1, a son of Pemblegong No. 1 was the Medium Wool and Reserve Grand Champion.

In the early 1970s, the Mills family considered selling the famous stud and property. Tom Lilburne, then Uardry's studmaster and chief sales manager, believed the future of Uardry lay in the hands of an interested family. It was with this in mind that he approached Mrs Margaret Black.

Mrs Black's father, Sir Arthur Sims, had been interested in wool and sheep since the early 1900s. He and his partner, Arthur Cooper, bought Yanga Station in 1919 from the Scottish Australian Bank, which was acting as receiver.

At the depth of the early 1970s wool recession, Mrs Black and her family bought Uardry. Initially encountering floods and bush fires, which burnt approximately two-thirds of Uardry, they stood firm and set about restoring Uardry to its former glory.

Uardry has moved into the new millennium with the next generation's team of enthusiastic owners, management and staff. This team is committed to maintaining the traditionally high standards necessary in stud sheep breeding. Over the next few years with the aid of laproscope, fleece measurement, irrigation and pasture improvement, Uardry aims to run 10,000 breeding ewes to produce 3,000 rams annually. The quality of these rams, in good working order, will be assured by the drought-proofing effect of 4,000 acres of irrigation.

Uardry has been one of the first studs to experiment with frozen embryos, conducting research with the University of New South Wales.

Current interest shown by stud breeders in the intricacies of the Merino's wool-growing skin is being assisted in part by research involving a special group of top Uardry ewes, one of several groups around Australia.

The commitment to assisting research is long term. Those connected with Uardry believe very firmly that experimental work with the best producing sheep of Uardry is imperative to produce relevant and practical improvements in our mighty Merino while retaining the all important stability produced over many years of breeding.

In July 2008, the Hay Historical Society republished its collection of articles by Harold M Mackenzie under the title "Mackenzie's Riverina".  These essays on the properties of the Hay district were originally published in The Riverine Grazier during 1893 and 1894.  Click here to download an excerpt from Mackenzie's Riverina focusing on Uardry.