NationalAgriculture

Collinsville stud in South Australia's mid north achieves world record prices; champion ewe, ram at every show

Collinsville stud in South Australia's mid north achieves world record prices; champion ewe, ram at every show
Coronation 109, one of the most complete rams bred at Collinsville.
Image courtesy Collinsville Stud

Collinsville merino sheep stud in South Australia’s mid north, since 1961, has regularly set record price levels  – leading to a world record $450,000 in 1988 – for its rams. Collinsville began in 1889 when John Collins brought his first merino ewes from Burra to 50,000 acres of rugged country near Mount Bryan. After eight years on rations of saltbush, bluebush and herbage, the survivors formed an outstanding foundation flock.

Koonoona rams were used exclusively at Collinsville until 1910 when John Collins’ son Melvin went to the Sydney Royal Show to pay a world record 1550 guineas for the Haddon Rig champion ram Dandie Dinmont.

Art Collins, John Collins' sixth son, took over the stud in 1918 when Melvin Collins left to form his own Lamara stud. Art became the outstanding merino breeder of the 20th Century. He was committed to breeding large heavy-fleeced sheep for the most rigorous conditions and to achieve high lambing. His animals influenced the national flock more than any other bloodline.

When Art Collins began, the stud comprised 4,000 ewes plus a handful of daughter studs. He saw the flock grow to nearly 10,000 ewes and 140 daughter studs. From the 1920s, Art Collins achieved the unequalled feat of winning both grand champion ewe and ram at every Australian capital city show.

Collinsville has had outside owners and stud masters since Art Collins died in 1969 after heading the stud for 45 years. After period of mixed fortune, the appointment of Tim Dalla as stud master in 2008 and a return to the Royal Adelaide ram sale in 2010 have revived Collinsville.

Other related ADELAIDE AZ articles

South Australian state heritage listed Princess Royal Homestead on the sheep station, near Burra in the mid north, of almost 21,700 acres including the original grant of 10,000 acres to the Princess Royal Mining Company who sold it in 1860 after failing to make a profit from its copper venture, unlike the adjoining Monster Mine.
Agriculture >
Princess Royal home a legacy of failed half of 19th Century copper mine at Burra in South Australia's mid north
READ MORE+
he Browne borthers, William James (left) and (John) Harris Browne, were both qualified doctors but perferred pastoral pursuits, soon after arriving in South Australia around 1840.  Among the huge propoerties they bought were Buckland Park, north of Adelaide, site of a 21st Century outer Adelaide metropolitan housing estate.
Health >
Both doctors, Browne brothers William and Harris prefer to build big pastoral tracts in early South Australia
READ MORE+
Australia's first space observatory at Mount Stromlo, near Canberra. Its first director Walter Duffield was involved in early Canberra and the Stromberra Quintet (bottom left: carring his doublebass with wife Doris) but died, at 49, in 1929 and was buried on the slopes of Mount Stromlo (bottom right).
National >
Walter Duffield, from Adelaide science start, pushes for Australia's first space observatory at Mount Stromlo, ACT.
READ MORE+
Maps showing the historical context of South Australia's boundary anomalies. Maps courtesy Dr Gerard Carney
Oddities >
South Australian state border origin partly due to Spain-Portugal treaty that divided up the world in 1494
READ MORE+
Sundrop Farms, near Port Augusta, is desalinating Spencer Gulf water to grow vegetables, with solar power. Image courtesy Mother Nature Network
Agriculture >
Sundrop Farms, world's first to produce with food from solar power, starts Port Augusta energy switch in 2016
READ MORE+
Binders working on a crop at Riverton, South Australia, 1900-12. Image by Edwin Scholz, from a collection by John Clifford Tolley. Courtesy State Library of South Australia
Government >
'Sickness' and red-rust disease in 1860s South Australia wheat from lack of local knowledge and overcropping
READ MORE+