The Earaheedy Station Rescue

Station History & Rescue Overview

Fred Pope aged 90 years, Earaheedy Station

~photo by Edna Rivett

"Traveler, your footprints are the road and nothing more;

traveler, there is no road, the road is made by moving."

(Antonio Machado 1875 - 1939)

This rescue (including resultant trips to the station), which took place between 2004 - 2006 resulted in the founding of the Outback Heritage Horse Association of WA.

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Frederick (Gamble?) Pope was born near Browns Plain near Melbourne, Victoria in the 1800’s. Later he went to Queensland where he worked as a drover for a number of cattle stations. He came to Wiluna in Western Australia in 1920. No one can recall how he arrived but he didn’t bring any horses with him. It was possibly at the end of a droving run from Queensland.

Fred worked for Tweedy and Ward who owned Millbillillie Station, purchased in 1906. He did a lot of cattle and horse work on this property, including droving cattle down to Leonora which was where the buying and selling of stock was carried out.

Fred became good mates with an aboriginal named Tommy Ningebong while working at Millbillillie. When Millrose was taken up in 1925 by the two Ward brothers, Nick and Henry, Millbillillie was sold to Coree Pastoral Company who in turn sold it to the Doman’s in the mid 1950s. (The Doman’s first came to Wiluna in 1949 and bought Wongawol.)

Wiluna was a populated area at the time, albeit sparsely. Fred’s plan was to breed large, hardy, ground eating horses for the locals and the local constabulary, thinking he would get rich – he hadn’t figured on the enduring qualities of the motor car.

Fred was given some stock horses, including mares, from Millbillillie when it was sold. Around 1926, Fred took up 200,000 acres of land which had two blocks on either side, and this is where he started his horse breeding program.

Fred first sunk a well on Granite Peak where the homestead is today - that well still supplies the homestead water. Fred did this thinking that the land was his, but the owners of Granite Peak found it was on their property so Fred had to move on and finally settled at a place called Warrumbindi after a rockhole found in one of the creeks. It is an aboriginal name – not known whether Fred actually named it or it was already named by the local aboriginals, but the two well known creeks in the area were Warrumbindin and Warrumbindi.

Fred sunk the well – known as “Popes Well” - and had his camp there. Tommy Ningebong played a big part in helping Fred with all of his work. Fred then purchased a Percheron cross stallion. According to those who knew him, Fred liked the idea of breeding a big, ground eating horse that was striking in appearance, hardy in body and sound in mind and feet. Anecdotal evidence – and veterinary supposition – indicates that Fred used a combination of breeds to achieve this, mainly Thoroughbred, Arabian, Percheron (a heavy French draught horse), mixed with the station horses he already had. He definitely purchased a part Percheron stallion to use early on and could have also used Percherons belonging to the Cobb & Co Coach group who serviced the area for many years. He may have later re-introduced Doman family Percherons but this has yet to be established.

There is some indication in the modern Earaheedy horses - several of which exhibit an ambling gait - that one of the original breeds used also ambled, or that Pope may have also used a European breed of some description, although this may only be able to be confirmed through future DNA testing.

He later sold quite a few of the grey (yearlings) to the police and stations in the area. Fred also hired mature horses to the Wiluna police. Now and then the Police would employ Tommy – he was known as a top tracker.

A local history book also indicates that Fred sold horses to the military, however this is anecdotal evidence and unconfirmed, although likely. Later Australian War Memorial archive photos of grey horses at the Gin Gin training camp in WA show horses which indicate the same breeding as those originally from the Earaheedy area.

The one thing we do know is that Fred rode until at least 90 years of age! (See top photo.)

Fred lived a long, hard life, from all reports keeping mostly to himself and seldom paying his rent on the land. It is thought that because of non payment of lease rent before he died, one of the Quartermaines then took up paying Fred’s lease, leaving Fred undisturbed. Always cheerful and rarely bathing, Fred continued on as a squatter. He was a scruffy, lean, outstandingly hardy individual who died around 1956, in his 90's. Fred was buried in the Wiluna cemetery but no one knows of any relations.

Following Fred’s death, Bob McGaffin and Archie Hogg were the first to work the lease. When Archie Hogg left the partnership, grandfather Quartermaine took his place and soon after that he bought Bob McGaffin out. The Quartermaines, who had always liked Fred, allowed the remaining horses to run free, without interference, within the confines of the 130,000 km2 station. It was harsh, hard country where only the best of the best survived, but an estimated one hundred of these horses did and so they remained there – breeding unhindered in almost complete isolation for the next five decades.

The line of horses greyed out (most likely from early grey Arabian and Percheron bloodline influence)...today it is believed that all pure Earaheedy horses are homozygous greys, in various shades, born solid colours but greying out early.

In 1999, Ross Quartermaine sold the station to the WA Department for Conservation and Land Management (CALM), who planned to return it to its natural state, along with several surrounding stations. This involved “destocking” and ridding the stations of all introduced species and artificial water sources. Around the time CALM put their plan into operation, a professional shooter was sent in to cull any remaining introduced stock. The bores had already been shut down. The shooter spotted a number of grey horses, still alive despite the reducing water and sparse feed. Thankfully this man recognised the quality of these isolated wild animals and contacted Dr Paul Wynne-Houchin, a South-West veterinary surgeon. Paul, in turn, notified a colleague, Dr Sheila Greenwell of Margaret River.

By the time the first rescue occurred, the area had been in drought for some years. The six odd dams which man had provided decades earlier to supply himself and his cattle had had their infrastructure dismantled and had begun to dry up. Also, the population of kangaroos had begun to die from the intense heat, their bodies rotting in the remaining fetid water and causing contamination. The nearest water source was too far for horses to walk without danger of dying of thirst.

There were a number of small family groups or mobs of horses, each with a dominant stallion and lead mare, which Sheila and Paul observed on the station over several weeks and several reconnaissance trips. The greater number of horses originally on the station had been decimated by the drought, resulting in an estimated forty surviving horses, although the true and total number of horses was not able to be established.

The smaller numbers are not thought to have led to inbreeding due to the fact that it had only been in the last few years that numbers had radically declined.

Paul contacted CALM (now Department of Environment & Conservation), and over the next two years, mounted two rescue trips to the station, rescuing 14 horses on the first trip (11 survived) in March 2005, and trapping 10 horses in the second rescue in December 2006, 5 of which survived to be trucked south.

Sadly, it is now thought that any remaining Earaheedy horses have either died from the effects of drought and malnutrition, been shot or (in probably very limited numbers if at all) migrated to neighbouring station areas.

Some of the rescued Earaheedys are now registered Foundation Walers with the Waler Horse Society of Australia (Inc), and work is underway to establish if all the Earaheedy horses are eligible for registration as Percheron Warmbloods, as it seems apparent that they are all mainly of old bloodline Percheron/Arab/Thoroughbred descent with little other breed influence.

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Anecdotal historical information provided by Henry Ward, a young man living in the area at the time Fred Pope was established there, and Ross Quartermaine, previous station owner. Other information from “Wiluna, Edge of the Desert” by PR Heydon.

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Photos to the right (top) are those of horses running wild on Earaheedy, between 2004 - 2006, plus those taken of the rescues, and post rescue photos. Photos taken by Ross Quartermaine, Katherine Waddington, Fran Jackson and/or Lynn Fenti. Many thanks for permission to use them on this website.