Our Story...
Brockham Stud is situated 350km south east of Perth in West Australia near a town called Lake Grace. The area is renowned for its big salt lakes, large wheat harvests as a big sheep and wool producing area.
Difersification is the key to survival out here and the property is comprised of 3000ha where we run 2000 sheep, a Quarter Horse Stud and a working Kelpie Dog Stud.
Owner Bruce Bishop is the 4th generation owner of the property. In 1984 Bruce Bishop passion for a good working dog led him to develop his own working Kelpie Stud. The stud has successfully breed, trained and sold many sheepdogs across Western Australia.
Brockham Stud was first established as a Merino Stud in 1935 with Sidney Bishop purchasing 105 stud ewes from the ‘lustre’ strain of Collinsville merino. Indeed Brockham was to remain a daughter stud of Collinsville for years to come. In 1955 son Rob Bishop took over the breeding program. Under Rob the stud took out Grand Champion Ram in 1964 at the Perth Royal Show. The ram, which also won the medium wool championship, was sired by a Collinsville ram bought in 1959 for the then state record price of 3,500 guineas.
In 1966 and 1968 Brockham Stud achieved the state record for highest prices paid for a West Australian bred rams with sales at $5,100 and $7,250 respectively. 1974 was another successful year at the Katanning ram sales with Brockham’s top ram realising $27,000 and two years later $25,000 was obtained. Brockham Stud was firmly established as a leading merino stud in the state. At the height of the stud’s success in 1976, stud master Rob Bishop died of a heart attack. Only son Bruce Bishop, aged 19 was to continue the stud, building on the solid foundations laid by his father and grandfather. (Reference: Bird. J, ‘Across the Lake, a History of Lake Grace 1911 – 1992’, Western Australia, 1992.)
Today the composition of the stud involves horn merino bloodlines and poll merino bloodlines. Bruce introduced poll merino genetics’ into the stud in 1978. The first on property auction sale was in 1981 when 600 to 700 rams were sold annually. Due to large cropping programs and very low flock numbers in WA, Brockham Stud has returned to private selections. Rams are available for sale in September of each year.
In 1994 Bruce’s passion for horses and breeding led to the development of the Quarter Horse Stud with the purchase of Doc’s Kool Widower and a couple of broodmares. A few years later Freckles Zest, a palomino colt with Mr Freckles Boy and Little Peppy Doc bloodlines was purchased from the eastern states. He was affectionately nicknamed ‘Dudie’. The stud has recently expanded to include 20 Quarter Horse broodmares, all from different bloodlines to suit a variety of horse sports including campdrafting, cutting, team penning, showing, pony club, adult riding club, trail riding and general riding.
