The Damara’s history began not in Australia but in Namibia, at the Omatjienne Research Station near Otjiwarongo, where researchers in the late 1950s and early 1960s began formally documenting a breed the Himba and Tjimba peoples of Kaokoland had been managing for centuries. What the researchers found was an animal that had been shaped entirely by its environment — drought, distance, poor feed, no veterinary intervention — and had emerged from that pressure with characteristics no breeding program had deliberately engineered. The South African Damara Breeders’ Society was established in 1992, and within a few years South African breeders were exporting genetics to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and beyond.

The first Damara genetics entered Australia in 1996. They came in as embryos and semen, introduced into Western Australia from South Africa. From those founders, the Australian population has been built entirely from within — no subsequent importation of live animals has ever occurred. The early years of Damara breeding in Australia were concentrated in Western Australia and Queensland, with a handful of committed breeders establishing the flocks that would become the foundation of the documented population. Among the most significant is Sherana Damaras, run by Viv and Judy Forbes in Queensland. Sherana had one of the oldest and most varied flocks of guaranteed pure Damaras in Australia. Brae Park has been another significant force — a stud that made a critical preservation impact on the Australian population by capturing and documenting the fragmented lines across the country, including purchasing sheep from the main closing studs in the early 2000’s and 2010’s (click here if you would like to read about why Damara was not able to cross into Australian commercial farming) such as Sherana, rams from Sherana, Jarrara and Springmount. We are proud to say that 90% of our flock originated from Brae Park genetics. Jarrara Stud in Victoria also contributed meaningfully to the registered population. These studs, along with a small number of others, constitute the backbone of what exists here and you will find their influence among the growing number of dedicated studs across the country.

A major episode in Australian Damara history is the story of what became known as the Ice Babies — and it is worth telling, because it highlights both the fragility and the determination that characterise the breed’s establishment here. Thirteen years before they were born, a South African veterinarian collected 100 embryos from pure Damara ewes owned by leading South African breeder Petra Scholtz. Those embryos were frozen and exported to Australia, ending up with John and Mary te Kloot of Marmboo in Longreach, Queensland, where they were stored in liquid nitrogen for twelve years. Viv and Judy Forbes at Sherana were aware of their existence and, concerned the embryos would be lost, purchased them in 2012. A vet was found with the right experience for the implantation program — Francois Marais, who in a strange coincidence turned out to be the same veterinarian who had harvested the embryos in South Africa thirteen years earlier. The implanting operation took place on 30 April 2013, and of 97 embryos implanted into 50 ewes, 32 became pregnant. Forty-nine lambs were born, 44 survived — roughly 24 ewes and 20 rams. Forty-four animals from 100 embryos that had spent more than a decade in frozen storage. The Forbes described the result as possibly the last Damara genetics that will ever get into Australia from Africa.

The barrier to further importation is scrapie — a prion disease of sheep that Australia has never recorded in its domestic flock and intends to keep out. Importing sheep genetics from countries where scrapie exists, or cannot be ruled out, requires animals to carry a specific genetic profile — the ARR/ARR scrapie-resistant genotype — before their material qualifies for import under Australian biosecurity rules. The incidence of the ARR/ARR scrapie genotype in the Damara breed was found to be low in an importation program to the UK – which means finding sufficient donor animals that meet the import requirement is difficult and the regulatory pathway that once allowed embryo imports has effectively shrunk. South Africa, despite being the logical source of new genetics, cannot readily supply genetics that meets Australian biosecurity requirements for this reason.

The result is a closed population. What was brought in during the 1996 importation, supplemented by the Ice Babies program in 2013, is what the Australian Damara population has to work with. No new genetics from Africa are anticipated. The Damara is listed as endangered in Australia by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia. The population is small, the registered stud network is limited, and the pressures on genetic diversity are real. At the same time, the breed’s qualities as a commercial animal have made it attractive as a terminal sire — which has driven the spread of Damara genetics through crossbreeding programs while doing little to grow the purebred registered population. This is the central tension in Australian Damara conservation. The breed’s usefulness has worked against its preservation as a purebred. The animals that make the best cross — hardy, fast-growing, low-input — are the same animals whose genetics disappear into a first generation of a mixed flock rather than being carried forward in future generations of Damara. The work of the Damara Sheep Breeders’ Society of Australia, and of the studs that maintain traceable, documented purebred lines, is the mechanism by which the breed’s future in Australia is being secured.

Thanks to The Damara Sheep Breeders Society for the information above – head to the DSBSA web page for more details, extra resources and guides.