The Droughtmaster breed has lost another of its visionaries and foundation members with the death of Richard Apel of Mimosa Droughmasters.
Mr Apel died on Saturday in Brisbane aged 83.
He grew up on Minosa Station on the Burnett River in an era when the Hereford breed grazed the paddocks. On returning home from boarding school at Adelaide's Emanuel College he became interested in infused cattle following Bos indicus imports from USA.
Mr Apel was inspired by the work in progress by Monty Atkinson, Mungalla, Ingham and Bob Rea, Kirknie, Home Hill and persuaded his father to introduce new blood into the herd where he commenced a grading-up program.
He established Mimosa Droughtmaster in 1960 and joined the Droughtmasters Breeders Group in 1961, as its youngest member at age 23, a year before it became autonomous as the Droughtmaster Stud Breeders' Society in 1962. Mr Apel took an active interest in administration of the society from 1965 and served on the committee 1969-72, then vice president until he became president in 1974 a position he held until 1978. He was given life membership in 1990.
On relinquishing the presidency he became focused on the goodwill for the breed and prior to the beef cattle recession of the late 1970s he bought Nummery Station bordering on the western extreme of the Simpson desert, 129 km south east of Alice Springs and moved 800 of his Droughtmaster herd 2400km from Mimosa to their new home.
The cattle were railed to the Dajarra Rail Head, and from there they walked an average of 24km a day over 680km to Nummery following the Plenty Highway, compared to the average droving time of 11km a day at the time.
He held Nummery until 1978 and sold to consolidate his position following the beef cattle recession. In 1977 he competed at the Alice Springs show where he paraded the grand champion tropical breeds bull, Mimosa 188, and a Droughtmaster also claimed the champion carcase.
In 1989 Mimosa Station was sold and Mr Apel moved his family operations to Mallina station, Port Hedland, WA where his concerted efforts turned to raising the image of the breed to pastoralists of the Kimberley and Pilbara region.
In 1996 he was awarded the West Farmers-Dalgety Rural Achiever Award for his promotion of the live steer export trade through Port Hedland with support from BHP and the Pilbara Development Commission.
He later moved to a small property at Moora WA where he continued with a small herd of registered Droughtmasters and began work with leadlight stained glass mural art and sculpture.
He received a Churchill Fellowship Award to study and learn the secret glass painting firing techniques and copper work previously unknown outside Germany.
Mr Apel's funeral will be held at St Augustine's Church, Hamilton, Brisbane on April 4 at 10.30am.
He is survived by wife Joan, children Hildegarde, Max and Rebecca.
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Helen Walker
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
Helen is the Toowoomba-based journalist who loves nothing better than covering anything horse sport related, however she covers all commodities and personality yarns. Over the years she has lived in Brisbane, Rockhampton, Longreach and Roma filing stories for the 'bible of the bush'. Contact 0459 827414.
