Jackie Hunter – Registrar

Registrar
Jackie Hunter

Koolies have been the love of my life for more years than I can count. My first exposure to them was when I was working in country Victoria in my early 20’s and the bond was made…… one day I would have one of my own, little did I know where this would lead to.
I was blessed with my first Koolies in 2006 when our area had been devastated by Cyclone Larry, one of the largest cyclones to pass through our region. I had lost my Kelpie and decided that this was an opportunity for change. We contacted Bec Creer of Sheringa Koolies and the first building blocks of our bloodline was created as well as my passion for the breed.
When we had our four koolies, two from Sheringa, one Turramina (who became the matriarchs of our current bloodlines) and our male from Brescot Koolies, Allambie Koolies was formed in our current location near Malanda in North Queensland. A beautiful 220 acre haven in the wettest part of the country! As our livestock numbers increased so did our need for great working dogs. With the mentorship of several other breeders and working dog trainers we added to our Koolie numbers and through attending schools/workshops gained skills needed to train our own working team of Koolies. We run dorper sheep, crossbred goats and a small herd of cattle and great working dogs with the ability to think for themselves is a necessity. Our motto with breeding is ‘work first’ and every one of our Koolies has proven themselves in the work arena. There is nothing more satisfying then watching dogs that you have breed and trained work in unison to muster a paddock and bring your livestock home.
Koolie bloodlines have been another passion of mine since getting involved in the Koolie Club and with the mentorship of the late Ann Worboys, followed the evolving of our KCA registry. On Ann’s passing I was humbled to be nominated to the Registrar position. The baton was passed over to me almost 18 months ago and I am keen to uphold Ann’s values as the current Registrar of the Club. I believe my passion for bloodlines has helped me tremendously in this role, having tracked lines from every corner of the Country over the years when looking to add dogs to my ever-evolving team.
Our other pastime has been our herding dog workshops. Previously we spent our holidays traveling to herding dog workshops all over Queensland with our Koolies and met some awesome friends through this. We decided 10 years ago with the help of some great friends to host our own workshops at a great location at Kerribee Rodeo Grounds not far from us. These workshops would not have eventuated without our trainer/dog whisper Tony Cock and his wife Tracey (TNT Working Koolies), Kylie Coutts (Imrie Creek Koolies) and Ron Taylor (my partner in Allambie) that form the committee that host yearly herding dog workshops sponsored by the Koolie Club.
I will happily sit and talk about my dogs or Koolies in general to anyone that shares an interest and passion in our breed. My happy place is always around my dogs and I can often be found walking my pack for hours at a time around our place and sitting and dog watching! Learning from their dynamics and interactions. People often ask me how I can run a pack of more than 20 dogs at any given time; but a lot of this comes down to the breed and knowledge gained on them over the years and the fact Koolies are such social dogs!
All the information on my dogs can be found on my website and lots of photos and stories shared on my facebook group Allambie Koolies.