Table Of Contenthorses in AustrAliA
An illustrAted history
• •
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 1 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
h o r s e s i n A u s t r Al iA
An illustrAted history
• •
nicolAs Br As ch
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 2 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
h o r s e s i n A u s t r A l i A
An illustrAted history
• •
nicolAs BrAs ch
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 3 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
For Greg Mitchell
(1961–2013)
From Pearl Beach to chatswood to randwick,
there was only one thing on our minds – horses!
A NewSouth book c o n t e n t s
Published by
newsouth Publishing
university of new south Wales Press ltd
university of new south Wales
sydney nsW 2052
AustrAliA
newsouthpublishing.com
© nicolas Brasch 2014
First published 2014
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
this book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the
purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as
permitted under the copyright Act, no part of this book may
be reproduced by any process without written permission.
inquiries should be addressed to the publisher.
national library of Australia
cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Author: Brasch, nicolas, 1961– author.
title: horses in Australia: an illustrated history / nicolas Brasch.
isBn: 9781742231013 (hardback)
9781742247090 (ePdF)
subjects: horses – Australia.
horses – Australia – history.
horses – Australia – Pictorial works.
dewey number: 636.100994
Design di Quick
Cover design Blue cork
Cover images front jacket Alcopop in the lead-up to
the Melbourne cup, 2009 (Kelly Barnes/newspix).
back jacket trainer tommy Woodcock with reckless on
the eve of the Melbourne cup, 1977 (Bruce Postle).
Printer everbest, china
extract from hermann Beckler on pp 43–4 are from Beckler,
A Journey to Cooper’s Creek, trans. stephen Jeffries and Michael
Kertesz, Miegunyah Press, Melbourne, 1993.
All reasonable efforts were taken to obtain permission to use
copyright material reproduced in this book, but in some cases
copyright could not be traced. the author welcomes information
from copyright owners and cultural owners regarding this.
this book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from
plantation or sustainably managed forests.
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 4 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
For Greg Mitchell
(1961–2013)
From Pearl Beach to chatswood to randwick,
there was only one thing on our minds – horses!
c o n t e n t s
introduction 6
1 horses, status and colonialism 10
2 equine explorers 32
3 horses of the lawless 58
4 on the road 72
5 romanticising the horse 88
6 Walers at war 98
7 And they’re racing … 118
8 horses on show 162
9 Prancing and dancing 180
10 the wild ones 192
11 the breed for every need 204
12 tilling and toiling 226
13 the horse in art 240
Acknowledgments 254
Picture credits 255
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 5 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
6 Horses in AustrAliA
i n t r o d u c t i o n
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 6 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
7
the most popular horse
race in Britain is the Grand
national steeplechase. in the united states it’s the Kentucky
derby. these races are run on a saturday – a day associated with
rest, recreation and frivolous pastimes. Both countries hold their
federal elections during the week – when real business is supposed
to be conducted, and when the media cycle is at its peak.
i n t r o d u c t i o n on the other hand, Australia’s most famous horse race, the
Melbourne cup, is held on a tuesday and our federal election is
held on frivolous saturday. says it all really.
My first memory of horses was not of horses on a farm or in
the outback. it was not even on a racecourse. it was at a friend’s
house. i would have been about eight and as i walked through the
living room i noticed my friend’s dad sitting in a comfy lounge
chair with a pair of binoculars on his lap. i followed his gaze
and he was watching tV. he was watching a horse race. i was
intrigued – not so much by the horse race but by his intensity,
his complete and utter focus, and the presence of the binoculars.
i still don’t know whether he was on his way to the races and just
wanted to catch the first race on tV; whether he associated horse
racing with binoculars so had them as a prop; or whether he actu-
ally used them to get a closer view on the tV. it was bizarre but
this image remained with me.
three years later my parents took me to randwick race-
course. i had no idea what to expect. i hadn’t expressed an
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 7 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
8 Horses in AustrAliA
interest in horses, dad certainly didn’t care, i presume it was
Mum’s initiative. i passed through the turnstiles and … well,
it was like dorothy in oz. Alice in Wonderland. Arthur in the
Galaxy. i had entered a world unlike any i had experienced and
which would tease and tantalise and tempt me for the rest of
my life.
the bookmakers fascinated me. so much so that years later
i contemplated it as a career. i got close to this dream by manag-
ing a betting shop in london for a year. the jockeys were a sight
in their multi-coloured silks – but the nerve of these men (and it
was all men in those days) as they stormed down the straight, bal-
anced as if on a strand of floss, whips flaying, legs pumping. But
even then, as it still is now for me, it was more about the horses
than anything else. there is no beast on earth more majestic than
the horse. And i have since learnt that their appeal lies not just in
the final furlong when their nostrils flair and their blood pumps
like pistons. no, their versatility knows no bounds. they are
companions, performers, toilers and guides. And whatever they
are now, whatever they do, has nothing on their historical signifi-
cance. Modern Australia was forged on the horse’s back.
the first horses arrived in Australia on the First Fleet. it
would be nice to say that these few horses begat the cup winners,
war horses, stock horses and work horses of the future. they
didn’t. they didn’t last long at all. like the people who brought
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 8 3/09/2014 4:36 pm
introduction 9
them here, they were unsuited to the environment: ‘miserable’, as
Governor King called them.
however, the decades that followed saw some hardier and
speedier horses arrive and these ones were far better suited to
Australian conditions. local breeders began to realise what was
needed. And these horses helped the europeans to explore and
exploit. their offspring have transported loads, leapt trenches
and tilled the soil. they have pranced, bucked and hurdled. they
have been idolised and immortalised. But most of all, they have
been ignored. Accounts of explorers focus on the humans, not
those that carried them. early chroniclers talk about cattle and
sheep and pigs (all food animals) but not about horses. War has
made heroes of countless men and women, yet few statues have
been erected to the equine heroes. it seems that only in folklore
has the horse been elevated to its rightful place.
this book goes some way to illuminating this invisible animal.
it’s a visual tribute – with stories, lore and reflections interspersed
– to the horse in Australia.
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 9 3/09/2014 4:37 pm
1
10 Horses in AustrAliA
h o r s e s , s tA t u s A n d
c o l o n i A l i s M
HorsesInAustraliaText2printCORRS.indd 10 3/09/2014 4:37 pm
