'Godfather' of chooks honoured with testimonial at regional NSW show

When exploring the penned pavilions of regional country shows, chickens all cluck and look similar to the untrained eye. But to Peter, each breed is aesthetically different, from Bantam to Barred Rock and Leghorn to Australorp.

"On the farm 'Corridgeree', we'd be with dad [Claude] all the time, Ray, Dick and I, the three of us boys took an interest in the poultry. He'd go away judging poultry shows all over Australia, and we'd have to look after chooks at a very young age," Peter said.

"We'd always help him with the fowls where we could, and showing fowls as juniors was always a good thing, but dad would never permit that because he was a very prominent poultry breeder and he'd say people would think we'd win the junior class with our father's fowls."

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Peter and his two brothers began in the deep end, registering for open classes and not the juniors, and never receiving top marks from their father.

However, Peter chuckled as he recalled a time when Angledale's Mr Jauncey took over and judged the juniors one year.

"We got first, second and third. We had never run a place before because Dad used to mark us down when he was the adjudicator and judge, because it wouldn't look right putting his own sons up," he said with a smile.

"After I started judging, I'd come home to the farm, Dad had retired, and I'd get a weekend off the farm and we'd go and judge all over the country."

Taking on his father's advice, Peter said he was taught to stand up the bird, examine the type for feather quality and shape, and then have a good look of its head and its feet, and "sum up what's in between".

Squirrel tail, split wing, serrations, side sprig, twisted feather, crooked tail - each description for judging was recorded in what Peter described as the bible of poultry, 'Australian Poultry Standards 2^nd edition'.

It was a book he treasured and referred to when understanding point scale systems, one of his father's birds captured on the pages within as the "model of perfection".

Across the weekend of May 25 and 26, the Bega and District Poultry Club on the South Coast of NSW, hosted their 99^th show.

The event was dedicated as a testimonial to Peter for the decades he had provided as a judge and committee member.

"I was honoured, and because Ray [my brother] died suddenly and it was a huge loss, and he was very instrumental in running the club, and they said after that, 'Next show will be a testimonial show for Peter because we don't want to have a memorial show, we want to have fun with you," Peter recalled.

"The personal contact is just as good as showing the fowls, you know, going there and meeting my friends and having a yarn."

Peter sat perched on top of an old steel petrol drum in the corner of his free range chicken coop in Tarraganda, his Jack Russell 'Trojan' nibbled at a seed mix, while his Australorp pecked at freshly sliced fruit.

"I'd love Dad to be here to see them, actually, that's one of the things I'd really like to see," he said as tears began to well, his eyes remained scanning his chickens while a smile began to form.

"He was a wonderful man, heart of gold and a good father, and he loved his chooks and this was his breed - that's why I've still got them."