From Thoroughbreds to Clydesdales

While for many years the Blairmount estate was the home of Thoroughbreds, it later became the home of champion Clydesdales, bred by Mr Frank Young.

Frank was born in South Australia in 1885 and played a big part in the wool industry. As a young man he excelled at football and rowing. After school he was sent overseas to England and the continent to learn the wool business. On coming home he had enough knowledge and experience to join Commonwealth Wool and Produce. He would ultimately become its chairman and managing director in 1911.

Frank was described as “not being loquacious”. He did not really like talking about wool, or business, but he did like talking about football.  By 1937 he was the chairman of the Woolselling National Council, trading about 3 million bales of wool a year. But Frank’s side passion was the breeding of Clydesdale horses.

Widgiewa Blackwood, Champion Clydesdale Stallion at
Dandenong Show, prior to being purchased by Frank Young. 
(The Australasian, 19.12.1931)

He purchased Blairmount in 1929, and immediately set about modernising it. Sewerage, water supply, and electricity were some of his earliest concerns. One of his first equine purchases in the same year was the ten year old stallion Bangaroo Lettre, by the imported stallion Royal Warden. Bangaroo Lettre had made his name standing for the Glen Innes Experiment Farm. Frank purchased some mares, including two imported from Scotland. He then proceeded to build his herd of mares using Bangaroo Lettre. Around 1933 Frank purchased Widgiewa Blackwood, who had been imported in utero, and was a stallion who had already built a good reputation. Frank would use Widgiewa Blackwood over his mare herd and produced quality horses, who would take prizes at many agricultural shows, and be sold for good money. The Australasian paper in 1937 would say “Mr Frank Young’s Stock are Strong in Breed Type”, and “the sound average good quality of the brood mares on the property is beyond question”.  Frank was President of the NSW branch of the Commonwealth Clydesdale Society that same year.

Mullamuddy Fancy, one of Frank's early mare purchases,
Champion Active Draught Camden Show 1935
(SMH 6.4.1935)

Unfortunately, in 1942 Frank was reducing his stock, selling 8 of his mares at auction, and in 1946 making a further reduction. It makes me wonder if he was not in good health, as he passed away in 1950 at the age of 65. Blairmount was eventually sold in 1954 to Mr Stan French whose Eschol Park property adjoined Blairmount.

Written by Claire Lynch

Sources - Trove

Leslie G. Rouse - man of the turf

In 1923, "Blairmount" was purchased by Leslie G. Rouse, a well-known racing identity from Sydney. Leslie was born in Mudgee to parents Richard and Mary. His family owned Biraganbil and Guntawang stations at Mudgee, and they had become prosperous through the production of fine wool and beef cattle. Perhaps more important was their reputation as breeders of some of the finest racing and carriage horses in the colony. Their "Crooked R" brand inspired Banjo Patterson when he wrote 'A Bushman's Song', declaring that there were no better horses than those that wore the 'Crooked R'.
Leslie followed in his father's footsteps as a "top notch gentleman jockey" and he rode in amateur races as a young man. He studied to become a solicitor and was admitted in 1894, practicing law in Armidale and Gulgong. In 1897 he was appointed coroner for Gulgong, but his love for horses and horse racing was still a driving force in his life. He resurrected the Gulgong Races in 1899 and acted as handicapper, and was elected as an officer of the Mudgee District Racing Club the same year. The Mudgee Guardian described him as 'a young man with plenty of go'.
Leslie was appointed as a Stipendiary Steward for the A.J.C. (Australian Jockey Club) in 1904, and in order to fulfil this role he sold his Gulgong legal practice. The same year he married Hilda Bowman of Merotherie Station. Leslie devoted himself to the A.J.C. and in 1913 was appointed Keeper of the Stud Book and Registrar of Racehorses. His love of breeding, bloodlines, and racing made him the ideal person for this job, in which he remained until his untimely death in 1928.

Leslie G. Rouse (Photo Sydney Mail 22.6.1927)

Leslie used Blairmount as a breeding establishment for fine thoroughbreds, and he regularly submitted yearlings to the annual Yearling Sales in Sydney. After his death at the age of 58, the stud was dispersed, and the 11 broodmares who had produced beautiful foals for Leslie were sold at the William Inglis & Sons Easter Sale in 1929. Blairmount, perfectly set up for horse breeding, was then sold to Frank Young, who also bred horses, though of a very different type - Clydesdales!


Written by Claire Lynch


Sources:
Trove

A Pestilent Problem

The property "Blairmount" on Badgally Road has an interesting history with many associated stories. One of these is that of brothers Vic and Clive Ducat who lived at Blairmount (which at the time was called 'Belmont') in the 1920s, running a dairy herd. Vic served as an Alderman on Campbelltown Council. The brothers sold the bulk of the property in 1923, but retained some land in the area until 1929.
It was during the 1920s that Prickly Pear, an introduced noxious plant species, was having a devastating effect on rural properties, infesting over 60 million acres of land in Queensland and New South Wales. The problem was so serious that the Prickly Pear Destruction Committee was set up. In 1926 the Camden News reported that Prickly Pear was steadily insinuating itself throughout the districts of Campbelltown, Picton and Camden. The answer to eradicating this problem plant came in the form of the cactoblastis cactorum, commonly known as the Cochineal bug, the larvae of which draws food and moisture from the Prickly Pear, ultimately killing it.

from 1987 booklet "Prickly Pear Pest in NSW". An infestation of Prickly Pear. 

 Vic Ducat, whose property had been invaded, wasted no time and took up the challenge of ridding his property of the pestilential plant. After trying many methods to diminish its rapid growth, it was reported in The Campbelltown News in June 1926 that Mr Ducat had "made exhaustive enquiries throughout this and the Queensland State, and learned of the Cochineal Insect, and with fervent haste, procured a supply of this combating enemy". The insect was applied, despite local skepticism, to a portion of the offending plants, and within 18 months, the results were being reported as "a huge success at little cost". The story continued with "...the results are conspicuous. The patch is now dying and the insects have traversed 60 to 100 yards in every direction."
This biological control agent was so successful that by the 1930s all large infestations of Prickly Pear in Australia had been successfully reduced. Vic Ducat played his small part in one of the most successful stories of weed control in Australia.


Written by Claire Lynch
Sources
"Campbelltown's streets and suburbs : How and why they got their names" by Jeff McGill, Verlie Fowler and Keith Richardson
Grist Mills Vol. 9 No.1
"Badgally Road Campbelltown : The other side of the line" by Marie Holmes
Trove