Tell us about your clever working dog

HISTORY NOTES

 By Margaret Currell and Julie Williams

Julie writes -

Last week the death occurred in Brisbane of Marie Hall, a long-ago resident of the Barraba district.  Not many people in Barraba now would remember her because she left the area when she married Jim Hall in 1967. She died in Brisbane aged 89.  Marie was the daughter of Gordon and Stella Willliams of “Sadowa”, Rocky Creek – a place more isolated than its 80km from Barraba might suggest.  The state of the roads on properties as well as some of the “main roads” in the 1950s and early 1960s in that part of the world made travelling quite a challenge! When Marie acquired her green Morris Isis car she was able to take part in the tennis competitions in Barraba and was thrilled to win the ladies’ singles championship in 1964.  Recently a particularly observant visitor to the Nandewar Historical Society Museum noticed that “Miss M Williams” was a frequent champion on the Barraba Tennis Club Honour Board until she became “Mrs B Smith” in 1953.  That was Margaret Smith nee Williams. But an observant visitor then pointed out that some years later both Mrs B Smith AND Miss M Williams were named on the board in the same year, so the tennis club must have made a mistake. But no – that was Marie!

Margaret writes (inspired by the recent stories about the Barraba Saleyards) –

Anyone who has owned a dog over the years will be well aware of their brain power or sometimes the lack of brain power. This week we have two stories about sheep dogs with quite a lot of common sense/brain power.

The first is about a truck dog, who often travelled in the truck with his boss. Trips out west to bring sheep into the Saleyards meant a sleep until the sheep property was reached and then he sprang into action helping load the truck. On reaching the Saleyards, all the partition gates on the truck were opened and the dog went to work unloading the truck while the boss spoke to the Agent nearby. With most of the sheep down in the yard the dog started to bark – there was a sheep down and he needed the boss to help get it off the truck!

The second is about one of our own dogs (Ben) who could manage Dorpers in the steep hills away from vehicle tracks. If the sheep took off along the side of the hill he would stay with them, probably under a tree, until he received further orders. One day all the sheep were down in a paddock on the flat and we drove in to shut the gate, only to find that two had stopped up near the top of the hill. We pointed them out to Ben who stood and looked up the hill, then took off up to get them. Of course, they split when they saw him coming so he stuck to one bringing her down to the gate and then went back and got the other one. Sadly, Ben has passed on to doggy heaven at the relatively young age of eight years.

I’m sure readers would have many a great story about clever dogs – write in to the Editor, Barraba Community News. We would love to hear them.