Ellerston Polo Club

Monday 13th October. This is the most fantastic place and I wish my proes were up to giving you a true feel for the scale and beauty of the place. A bit of background may help. It is owned by one of the richest if not the richest men in Australia - James Packer inherited from his father Kerry Packer inherited from his father Sir Frank Packer. The homestead and surrounding enclosure of nearly 2000 acres is all fenced in with wire mesh fence and is referred to by the stockmen outside the fence as the "Goldern Triangle" with some good reason for it encloses an entire community of people engaged in the running of the establishment. This consists of the Polo establishment and the Golf establishment and all the supporting infrastructure. To list just some of the facilities : Three H shaped stable blocks each leg being approx 200 feet long and 60 feet wide. Each block has about 45/50 boxes offices toilets washing machine room rest room etc.

Several polo fields in immaculate condition. Vet's clinic - said to be one of the best in the southern hemisphere. Farrier's shop. Dozens of bungalows scattered about within the trees (15000 have been planted) to accommodate the staff. A gymnasium, tennis courts, Cinema, Clubhouse with restaurant, school (20 children and two teachers), general stores, countless additional stables for visiting teams, dozens of bungalows for the visitors. On the golf side there is the most incrdible golfcourse designed by Greg Norman kept in immaculate condition and probly one of the most chalenging courses to be found anywhere in the world. There is a 1km go cart track, helicopters, hanger and support crew and pilots - the list is endless. Outside the fence there are tens of thousands of acres for sheep and cattle rearing as far as the eye can see to the distant mountains. There is an inhouse butcher who does all the slaughtering of the home grown meat. Sheep shearing sheds and accommodation for the shearers of the highest standard - thousands of sheep and thousands of herefords. Hope you've got the picture, It's BIG.

Jim is the polo manager and has been here for 23 years. When KP first employed him he had been Australia's best polo player and his input has been a very major factor in the success of the Ellerston Club and the very successful breeding operation. Today he took us on a conducted tour but like a prat I left my camera in the house so you are going to have to wait for pictures. First we visited the maternity paddocks to inspect the new born foals. One born within the last hour and woud have liked to have taken a photo of its first touch by human hand. Next to see the Vet - Al - testing the mares for ovulation. The routine is to collect the stallions semen, splt it into three measures and then impregnate three mares. Once the mare is successfully pregnant the embryo is flushed out and implanted into a surrogate mare. The success rate is about 80% and I am staggered to be told that the success rate for all pregnancies in humans is only 40% - a figure I find hard to believe. There must be over 700 horses here and that takes some looking after.

It's a small world as we all know and just to prove it Marilyn has met a young English Polo player here who was in the Goodwood Pony club when Marilyn taught him Mounted Games - James Harper. In the afternoon we visit the Vet's wife to see the orphaned baby Wombat that she is nursing. They have decided to call it Angelina. Have seen more Roos and the most fantastic assortment of coloured birds.