Brenton writes the book on English Leicester sheep

Brenton Heazlewood started researching the history of English Leicester in Australia around seven years ago.

“I thought ‘well, I'd better write it all down;’ so that’s what I’ve done and turned it into a 600-page book,” Mr Heazlewood said.

The History of English Leicester Sheep in Australia is expected to be published within the coming weeks and will be available for purchase online in paperback or e-book format.

Mr Heazlewood said this year marked the 200th anniversary of the first arrival of English Leicesters in 1825.

“Our family’s had English Leicesters since 1871, and they are a minor breed all around the world now; there’s not a huge number of English Leicesters in Australia – there’s not a huge number anywhere.

“I knew that it would be getting close to it being 200 years since the breed was introduced into Australia, and so I started to research that aspect of it.

“And my conclusion has been that the first recorded importation of the breed occurred in October 1825 when some English Leicesters arrived in Hobart.

“So then I started researching the history of the breed generally in Australia, and that’s taken me seven years to do.”

While researching for the book, Mr Heazlewood said finding information about English Leicester’s in Australia was difficult.

“I collect old sheep books from around the world, and you can get a lot of information from that.

“The internet is a wonderful thing, because you can go to the internet and look up all the historical records of Australia, and that helps you a lot.”

Old newspapers, which are available on Trove, were also helpful for Mr Heazlewood when he was putting together the book.

“You can spend hours and hours hunting through those papers.

“You get one lead, that takes you off somewhere, and then it takes you to another lead and off you go there.

“It’s just a matter of process really, and keeping on hunting.

“What will happen – of course – is when people read this book is that people will come up more information; that’s the way it is.”

Mr Heazlewood said it was “very pleasing” to have finished the book.

“I just hope that people find it interesting. The writing side of it was a bit difficult, but I loved the research side of it.”

The book can be preordered on Brenton Heazlewood’s website.