Hello and welcome to the Australian Sheep Dog Workers’ Association Incorporated’s website

Hello to all dog trialers , supporters and working dog lovers. Rhonda and I lived on Camara Station north of Winton in Western Queensland for the first 40 years of our married life. Now we have scaled down and live near Tara on the Western Downs, Queensland. We always had working dogs on our property and started dog trialling when riding horses, shoeing and caring for them became a bit too difficult. We started trialling our Kelpies in 1991 at the local trials, Longreach, Barcaldine and Blackall, some 200, 300 & 400 kms away. Our first long trip was in 1992 when we travelled to South Australia (some 2200 kms) with the dogs in the back of the Subaru Station Wagon and towing a camper trailer. We had attended a Neil McDonald school near Winton and he encouraged us to go 3 sheep trialling and we stayed with Helen and Neil at Keith S.A. prior to competing in the 3 Sheep Trial at Stockport. Neil gave us an introduction to George and Pat Noble, who was the President of the S.A. Working Sheepdog Association at that time and they made us feel very welcome. Our Kelpies had some success in the Novice and none whatsoever in the Open. We then went to the S.A. State Championships at Roseworthy Ag College where we failed to trouble the scorers including one run of 15 minutes with NPA being No Points Allocated. A young Anthony Ireland won with Percyton Flo Jo, the first of their 3 State Championship victories. Our first Australian Supreme Championships was at Toowoomba in 1995 where we met many of the top triallers of that era. We have attended all the Supremes from 2000 to now except for Tasmania in 2022 as I needed a few joints replaced.
Dog Trialling has taken us to all States of Australia and to New Zealand (that beats staying home and working) and has helped us make many good friends.

Regards
Jim O’Connell
President ASDWA Inc

Jim O’Connell