History Tour highlights

The members woke to the beautiful and lush Upper Murray Valley shrouded in light rain, but this wasn’t going to dampen the spirits of the enthusiastic participants of the One Day History Tour. With name tags in place and “goodie” bags in hand the tour boarded the bus and headed off following the Murray River.

First stop was “The Glen” the home of Mervyn Gadd where we saw the shed and cattle yards used previously for many cattle sales and had a feel for how it would have been for Mervyn to farm in the district especially on the steep slopes of Mt Alfred.

Helen Sutherland Homestead had been opened up just for our visit and we enjoyed morning tea on the front porch and talked of characters and events that have shaped the breed and its membership and Helen’s struggle to keep and breed her mulberries.

Peter and Gina Sutherland met the Tour at the Stone Monument with their display and a wonderful cow and calf tied up for the self funded tour to view. The Stone Monument was erected for the World Congress in 1991 by the MGBCS and the Sutherland family to honour the work done by Helen Sutherland in founding the breed, Murray Greys.

A meeting of a committee of the original Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society was held in Walwa Hotel in October 1962 so it was appropriate that we adjourned to The Walwa Hotel for a lovely lunch of BBQ steak and salad and further reminiscing and sharing stories.

The Gadd family had gone to great lengths to set up a wonderful display for their annual sale held the previous day and the One Day History Tour were invited to share this display of old ‘smithies’ equipment and farming gear from a bygone era and the documents and records from the Gadd family operation and the Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society. Wonderful photos of Murray Greys adorned the walls showcasing the great attributes of the breed and their market success. Although some breeders have come and gone and have chosen to do what they want with their cattle, the cattle continue to succeed in the market, on the plate and in the ring.

The participants had travelled from Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Victoria and were all from diverse operations but came together happily to share their passion for Murray Grey cattle and to learn a little of the origin of the breed and the formation of a Society to register the breed.