Sheep Breeder And A Well-tuned Sportsman

The Age

Thursday February 16, 2006

TOM CAREY

GEORGE RATHJEN "RAY" STARRITT OBE, OAM STUDMASTER, SPORTSMAN 18-9-1915 - 12-12-2005

GEORGE Starritt, who made Kelso Park stud famous throughout Australasia, and was the best-known citizen in Victoria's Goulburn region, has died at home, aged 90.

Starritt was ensured a ubiquitous permanence in the region when post office officials listed him officially residing variously at North West Mooroopna, Tatura East, Road Mail Box Tatura, Manley Road Mooroopna North and Mooroopna North West. The upshot: his redirected mail was always a week late.

He also had more lives than a cat, with at least three car accidents so spectacular that his mates all reckoned he was lucky to have escaped with his life. After one accident he had surgery on the same hip three times.

Starritt was a quiet, genial man of sober disposition. Hard work was his only excessive habit; his moderate lifestyle ensured he lived to old age and he died in the same place where he was born, Kelso Park stud, Mooroopna North West, his first and last designated address.

He was acknowledged throughout Australasia as the foremost authority on Border Leicester sheep, as was his father George before him and as is his son Bruce, now. Their knowledge of Shorthorn cattle and Clydesdale horses was only marginally less; the family have bred sheep at Kelso Park since 1881.

Starritt was the younger of two children of George and Amanda Starritt, and was born at Kelso Park.

He imported the Clydesdale stallion All's Well to add to his Border Leicester and Shorthorn stock at Kelso Park, and with the 15 guineas service fee for the stallion so rewarding, the proceeds paid for his new home with his wife Norma (nee McKean), whom he married in January 1940. Their union lasted for 65 years.

Starritt's reputation as a studmaster soared rapidly, accompanied by industry responsibilities. He became president of Shepparton Agricultural Society, the Beef Shorthorn Society, Poll Shorthorn Society of Australia, Australian Sheep Breeders' Association, Australian Society of Breeders of British Sheep, chairman World Shorthorn Conference, Shorthorn Export Association, vice-president World Shorthorn Council, and producer representative of the Australian Meat Research Committee.

In 1957 he joined The Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria, became vice-president from 1969-82 , then president from 1983-86.

For 20 years he was a judge of harness racing for Shepparton Trotting Club, a Shepparton Rotarian and a masonic lodge member at Shepparton and Tatura.

Starritt judged sheep and cattle at every Royal Show in Australia, and in South Africa and Britain.

He was awarded an Order of the British Empire in 1977 and Order of Australia Medal in 1987 for services to the livestock industry. (His father George was awarded an OBE in 1956 by personal telegram from Prime Minister Robert Menzies in January 1956.)

Football and tennis triumphs highlighted his youthful recreation in partnership with his cousins Alan and Norman Starritt, of Winton Park stud nearby, and another neighbour Gerry Gaffy, who was ranked among the top tennis players in Victoria in the 1930s. The four formed an invincible team that won state country tennis titles for several years.

The Starritt trio were also brilliant footballers recruited to Mooroopna in the Goulburn Valley League and played in the consecutive premier teams in 1936-37-38. These teams, coached by the legendary Charlie Huggard, are widely regarded as the best ever to play in the region. Cousin Alan was a gifted centre half-forward, cousin Norman a spectacular full-forward, and Starritt a solid centre half-back, not as flamboyant as his cousins, but just as reliable in crises.

The trio played key roles in a freakish match against Kyabram in 1937, in which Mooroopna, down by a point at three-quarter time, kicked 17.3 in the last quarter to win by 105 points.

Huggard's Cats completed the treble by beating Shepparton by 11 goals for the 1938 flag, and then the team was disbanded as war loomed in Europe. Post-war another Mooroopna team won the 1946 Central Goulburn Valley Football League premiership, with Starritt and his cousin Alan among the three survivors of the treble-premiership team.

Starritt was also a versatile musician who played the piano, violin, mouth organ and all sorts of novelty instruments such as tin whistles, besides performing as a ventriloquist with talking doll Charlie, and entertaining with magic tricks.

He retired in 1996 and occupied his last decade with Norma travelling around Australia in pursuit of the perfect game of bowls.

Starritt is survived by his wife Norma, children Delphine, Bruce and Ian, son-in-law Bruce, daughters-in-law Ann and Victoria, and nine grand-children and great grand-children.

Tom Carey is a freelance journalist based in Shepparton.

© 2006 The Age

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