History

The Royalla herd has a proud history stretching back around 60 years. It began with a Shorthorn commercial herd at ‘Marellan’ in the 1950’s where sires included bulls from Weebollabolla. In 1970 a bull was purchased from the famed Kaluga herd of the late Bruce Walker. He was KALUGA FULBRIGHT and was ahead of his time with his carcase attributes. Fulbright sired some of the original Marellan SFA cows. He was used very successfully over daughters of a Weebollabolla commercial bull purchased for the Marellan commercial herd in 1967.

In 1971 Marellan Shorthorns entered the stud circle using a nucleus of commercial cows that had been upgraded through the SFA system and a small number of stud cows purchased from Valley Vista and then from the MANDALONG dispersal in 1975. In 1974 MERIWONG TAMAR was purchased for $7700 from the influential Meriwong stud. He was the first stud bull purchased after the establishment of the stud. He was a very even dark roan who also left his mark on the herd.

The scale and volume of the females in the herd meant the this time was a very successful period for the sale of purebred unregistered bulls and the building up of herd numbers because only the female progeny of SFA females could be fully registered.

In 1978 another ‘great’ of the breed was purchased, YAMBURGAN CORKER 35TH. Corker was a big roan bull with a tremendously correct structure. He worked until he was 13 years of age and was highly influential in the herd.

In 1988 Neilson and Sue purchased ‘Royalla’ a few miles from ‘Marellan’ and also registered the stud name. Over the years the Royalla herd numbers increased and with the return of Lincoln and his wife Lisa they took over the Marellan stud name, and property, while Neilson, Sue and Nicholas assumed total control of the Royalla herd.

The forty years of the studs has seen a strong influence over the Shorthorn breed and the commercial beef industry as well as numerous Royal Show Champions and sale toppers.