Ralph Whitbourne was born in 1936 in Bairnsdale Victoria to
a non farming family. His great grandmother was of Scottish
heritage and hisown Father was killed during the war years.
His Mother remarried and moved the family to Melbourne
in 1943. Ralph began his working life in 1950 at the age of 14
years as a drover. In 1962 he upgraded from droving to be-
come a sheep buyer for J.H. Ralph. Aer 4 years in this po-
sition he relocated to Deniliquin in N.S.W. and took the role
as Stock Buyer for Farmers and Graziers Direct Meat Supply.
Unfortunately this company closed its doors around 1968 and
so it was time for a change of position for Ralph.
He then took on the role as a property manager at Conargo in
N.S.W. and worked there for 3 years until 1971. At this point
he purchased a droving plant and moved around working
throughout N.S.W. until 1983.
From 1983 and for the next 10 years, Ralph lived and managed
Balpool Station in N.S.W. Located just out of Moulamein, it is
today one of the largest piggeries in N.S.W. Aer leaving Bal-
pool he relocated back to Deniliquin and Ralph bought into a
Livestock Transport business with his son and they success-
fully ran that until until 2008 when he sold the business and
retired.
Whilst owning and running the Stock Transport business,
they became the very irst Livestock Carriers in Australia to be
Quality Assured through the Livestock Carriers Association
of Australia, something Ralph is still very proud of, “Comput-
ers were diicult to learn at the time, but we needed to use
them to gain the Quality Assurance, so despite the extra work
load, we persevered and it paid of ” Ralph said.
Once retired Ralph began spectating at sheepdog trials, his
love for stock work was still deep within him and this was a
way to stay involved in something that had been a major part
of his working career. In 2014 Ralph moved to Kyabram in
Victoria.During his time at Deniliquin in the 1970’s, Ralph became
involved with the Deniliquin Sheepdog Trial and although
he never competed, he was an active participant behind the
scenes. In 2014 he helped run the trial with Brian Harrington.Over the years Ralph had many good working dogs, howev-
er his favourite was a Border Collie that he got from a man
called Jef Jolly, who was a well-known trialler from the west-
ern district. he dog was called “Spike”. “I had over 50 dogs
throughout the years but Spike could read your mind” Ralph
said, “He was very perfect in his work, both in the yards and
in the paddock. He never chewed anything as a pup and was
never naughty.”During his years on the droving plant he owned many Kelpies.
He’d oen have between 14-15 dogs at a time, these were a
mixture of Border Collies and Kelpies but more so Kelpies.
“I’ve done everything I ever wanted to do when I was a kid”
said Ralph, “I wanted to be a drover, stock buyer and property
manager and I achieved all 3 of these positions”.When asked if he has any regrets he stated “Only one, and that
was losing my wife while at Balpool Station at the age of 48 to
heart attack.” Ralph has known his current partner, Julie, for
10 years. Ralph and his late wife had 2 children, a son and a
daughter. Aer the sale of their Livestock Trucking business,
his son took employment driving grain trucks.Ralph has been blessed with 4 grandchildren and one great
granddaughter. Ralph currently owns a Border Collie bitch
called “Lass”. She’s 6 years old. She used to work cattle on his
partners farm, however now, like Ralph, Lass is retired and
only sees sheep when they visit a sheep dog trial.http://www.stockdogs.com.au AWSDM 27