History of Airedales in Australia
Airedale Terriers were first imported into Victoria Australia in 1890 just 7 years after they were first recognized in the UK, and have been bred and exhibited here continuously ever since. Despite this, their complete history in Australia has never before been fully documented. As my personal involvement in the breed has now spanned more than 50 years, I have taken on the responsibility to document their history within Australia.
This project represents not only my passion, but the passion of many who preceded me. It has involved not only my own personal research, but also stories, photographs and precious breed paraphernalia that has been entrusted to me over the years. By publishing information I already have to hand, I am hoping to stimulate others to contribute to this project and pass our passion on to those who follow us. As Australia is such a large country, I have divided this history between the various States.
Airedales were first imported into Melbourne in 1890. At that time Melbourne was the capital of Australia and also it's largest city. But by 1890 Melbourne was in an economic slump which lasted until the First World War. With around 20% unemployment at that time, we can only speculate how so many people could afford to import Airedales, which involved a four months journey by boat from England. In the following section, I have documented significant breeders who imported and bred, laying the foundation for us all to follow.
The earliest reference I have Airedales in Western Australia (WA) is of a Mr. Wright in Coolgardie where gold was first found in 1892. Mr. Wright also bought other dogs from various breeders in Melbourne, Victoria. As Coolgardie is around 1,000 kilometres overland from Albany, the main port for WA at that time, and Albany in turn is some 3,000 kilometres from Melbourne by sea, the mind boggles at the logistics of obtaining an Airedale from Melbourne by sea plus days on a dusty road presumably by horse and carriage! We can only speculate about the great passion Mr Wright must have had for the breed to found it in WA.
Mr. McEwin Duncan started the breed off in South Australia. He purchased a bitch BARKIS from J A Martin of Cobden, Victoria. Mr McEwan Duncan says about BARKIS,
The Airedale information I have to hand for NSW is fragmented and patchy. The following is as far as I can ascertain, in chronological order. For the sake of those who follow us in the future with Airedales, I hope I will be able collect sufficient material to fill the gaps and so be able to create dedicated pages to do these breeders justice.