History
History
History of the Murray Grey
The birth of the Murray Greys is a remarkable story, dominated at the beginning by three females : Ina Sutherland, Helen Sutherland and light roan Shorthorn cow. Helen Sutherland’s background was not what you expect for a person who played a crucial role in the establishment of the Murray Grey breed. She was born in Bristol, England on the 23 September 1910 and came to Australia at the age of two with her parents Frank and Mabel player. Her childhood was spent in Albury and in 1925 she went to stay at Thologolong Station. For the first time she saw the Mulberries began at this time and strengthened as her knowledge of cattle increased.
She had great love of Thologolong, which was for her a place of special significance, as it was for the Aborigines who named it a plain with a creek. This strong attachment began at the time of her first visit in 1925. On the 7 March 1931 Helen married Keith, the fifth son of Peter and Ina Sutherland, and lived on part of the property. They had eight children: Daune, Keith, Rosalie(dec), Peter, Michael (dec), Murray, Macian and Fiona.
Cattle and Thologolong have always been synonymous. There have been cattle on the property ever since it was permanently settled in 1837 as the outstation of Dora Dora, the station on the NSW side of Murray River. Helen Sutherland had a keen interest in the history of the station, particularly from the period from 1855 when the Sutherland family became associated with the property. In that year it was purchased by Peter Sutherland and his partner and his brother-in-law Joshua H. Cushing, an American from Boston, who traded as a merchant in Melbourne. Cushing died in 1895, so in the following year Peter Sutherland and his cousin J.G. Sutherland, became partners, with Peter continuing as the managing partner. It was a successful business venture which in the 1920s consisted of about 5,000 acres of freehold and 7,000 acres of leased forest county. On this area were grazed, according to the 24th September, 1921 issue of the agricultural weekly The Leader, “…800 to 900 cattle, including the young stock on the run, and from 4,000 to 5,000 sheep.” The station cattle were purebred or crossbred Angus, which were apparently upgraded from Shorthorn females.
In 1887 the first Angus cattle were purchased by Peter Sutherland as the basis of a stud. The two heifers and a bull called Nigger had been imported from New Zealand and sold at auction in Melbourne. This was the foundation of what became one of the largest Angus commercial herds in Australia and well known stud at the time of its dispersal on the 6 October 1932. This was due to the death of Peter Sutherland on the 27 December 1927 and the sale of the station.
Peter Sutherland (1858-1927) was reconised by his contemporaries as a skilled breeder of cattle, who only entered stock in local shows, but judged at both local and Royal shows. It was in the company of Peter Sutherland that Helen Player first saw the Mulberries, which had originated on the property in the early 1900s and were kept for curiosity value. Helen relised that there were ‘outstanding cattle”, as she wrote on 8 March 1971 when she accepted the Honorary Membership for the Life of the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society. She went on to say; “Therefore at tge first opportunity, which occurred on October 6th 1932 at the Thologolong Dispersal Sal at Tallangatta, I purchased the eight ‘Mulberry ‘ females.” The actual purchase was done on her behalf by J.G. Sutherland and her father Frank Player. J.H. or Cousin Jack (as he known to the family) did the bidding and obtained the eight females for eight pounds each.
As examination of the advertisements for the Thologolong Dispersal Sale list 1100 Angus cattle sold at Tallangatta on that key day for the Murray Grey breed, but give no indication that any of the Mulberries were present. they were just the crossbreds of no importance, the product of what Helen Sutherland described as “a washy roan Shorthorn cow” mated with Angus bulls.
Helen Sutherland’s husband Keith was an enthusiastic Angus breeder. At the 1932 Dispersal sale he practically brought the whole of the stud cattle. He was not all that keen on the Mulberries, so any attempt to introduce a breeding program was the responsibility of his wife.
A breeding program was begun with the eight Mulberry cows brought at the Dispersal Sale and in the early 1930s the first Mulberry bull was used. In 1935 Jock Buik came to Thologolong to work on the Angus Stud as the groom. He helped Helen Sutherland with the introduction of Mendels’s theory of heredity. The eight purest cows were divided into groups of two, and four different bulls were used to fix the breed. By 1940 this program to improve the purity of the breed was well established, the late Jack Tanner, the Secretary of the Aberdeen Angus Society, who visited the property in the late 1930s. The enlistment of Jock Buik in the Second World War slowed down the implementation of the breeding program. At the end of 1945 drought only eight cows and several calves were left. Even with this setback Helen Sutherland continued to build up the herd.
She was further encouraged and helped in the early 1950s by her son, Michael, until is death on 17 December 1955 at twelve years of age. At the time of the frontman of the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society on the 24 September 1962 two studs were established: Keith formed ‘Thologolong’ and Helen ‘Michaelong’, which made a major contribution to the bullpower of the breed, both at stud and commercial levels.
It was fortunate for the Murray Grey breed that the Gadd Brothers, Ray, Cleaver and Mervyn, at Mt Alfred realised the significance of the work done by Helen Sutherland. Their purchases of bulls from her herd , starting in the 1930s, helped ensure the expansion of the breed and gave it a strong commercial base.
When Helen Sutherland died aged 75 years of age on 21 November 1986, we lost the little grey-haired lady in the grey dustcoast and floppy hat with her wonderful sense of humour and ability to put pen to paper.
