the time, to be a large sum for a work-ing dog. At the same
trial another dog of Les’, Dan a son of Peggy, inished sec-
ond and his other entry Uncle Bob inished third. All three
dogs were related and scored within a point of each other.Les bred and developed the Alphadale line of Colies from Peg-
gy and the line had a major inluence on the sheep and cattle
dog breeds in Australia. It was 1962 when Les decided to seri-
ously go on the road with his team but not as a trialler, but to
provide demonstrations at agricul-tural shows up and down
the East Coast of Australia. He started with a demonstration at
the local Lismore Show and was then invited to demonstrate
at the Brisbane EKKA.his became a lucrative business for Les with exhibitions at
consecutive Newcastle shows and many other smaller events.
he ultimate trip was three months in Tasmania in 1962.
he demonstrations weren’t necessarily with livestock asLes Armstrong was born in 1912 and lived his early life around
Broken Head on the Far North Coast NSW. His family, like
a lot of families of those years, were involved in agricul-ture
with Les’ family growing bananas and dairying. In an inter-
view many years later he said he worked the irst 23 years of
his life on the family property for his keep and no wages. Les
was very good with animals and earned extra income break-
ing in draught and riding horses as well as the lead bullocks
for teams.
He had a connection with dogs and the irst re-
corded association was in 1955 at Broken Head.
here are photos from this period with dogs being trained on
fowl, and it wasn’t long before Les had a very good bitch he
called Peggy. She was primarily trialled as a cattle dog and
in 1962 won the Open trial at the North Coast National Ex-
hibition. Les was ofered 150 Pound for Peggy by the judge.
He turned down the ofer even though it was considered, at
THE WAY WE WERE
LES ARMSTRONG
Story by Peter Brown with input from Snow
Ellis, Geof Gibson and Robert JohnsonOne man and his dogs
10 AWSDM http://www.stockdogs.com.au