Everything’s rosy with Rosie

By Daneka Hill

May 27, 2022

Bill Eddy and Rosie. The kelpie-cross barks at the tyres to make the bike move faster, then sits expectantly on the back anticipating her next job. Photo by Daneka Hill

Rosie is a workaholic 10-year-old kelpie-cross. If she’s not working, she’s trying to sneak in overtime. Ruffy sheep farmer Bill Eddy says she’s the best dog he’s ever owned.

Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content

When did you get Rosie?

She came in 2013 fully trained. I bought her from a friend. She’s been the only dog for a long time, but now I’ve got a new one coming. It will be a two-year-old trained bitch. I’m not sure of the breed, I didn’t ask that, but I imagine kelpie. It was $2500 for Rosie and I’m expecting to pay a fair bit more for this next one. A good dog really is as useful as another man at least, if not better.

What do you like about Rosie?

She’s got a lovely wide cast. When we’re working on Merinos she’s got a good eye for the work and how to work them. This is the best dog I’ve ever had. I had three collies before her but they became more pets.

Rosie tries for a classic ‘if you can’t see me, perhaps you’ll forget to lock me up’ and ducks behind the flowers. Without a reliable off-switch or well fenced-in yard, Rosie sleeps on a chain at night (to the relief of local wildlife like the wombat who lives under the farm’s woolshed). Photo by Daneka Hill

What sort of property do you have?

It’s 300 acres (121ha) with 500 acres (202ha) across the road. We’ve got 1200 head and we just crutched them yesterday. Rosie is good at everything. She’s great in the paddock. In the yards she won’t bark or force them but once they are yarded I can handle them. Paddock work is more important.

Does she go off-property much?

On holidays she goes to our daughter’s place in Oxley (near Wangaratta) and she loves it there. It’s 10 acres (4ha).

“You notice she’s got floppy ears, not a kelpie’s pointy ears. So I know she’s crossed with something,” Bill Eddy says. Photo by Daneka Hill

Any bad habits?

If a straggler get on its own, she’ll block it from coming back into the herd. She will chase rabbits if she sees them and wanders off to the woolshed so she’s tied up at night and even has her cushion in the garage where she sits on a leash when I come home for lunch.

Scary moments?

Not long after we first got her there was a bad storm and we couldn’t find her. Someone found her the next day two kilometres away and now whenever we go past that spot on the road in the ute, she always barks. It's a corner on the Weibye track. We started tying her up at night after that.