Farmer News
1 July, 2026
Beloka Kelpies scoops the pool
IN his 26th year of selling at Casterton, Paul Macphail (who hails from Beloka Kelpies in Gippsland) scooped the pool again at this year’s Premier Australian Working Dog Auction.
Paul sold the top-priced dog and top priced started pup.
Beloka Stella, one year and two months old, attracted buyers early; her AuctionsPlus pre-bidding price hitting $11,000 before the crowds settled in at Island Park.
That afternoon when the hammer fell, first-time Casterton auction buyer, Ellie McDonald, had blown her budget, but was delighted with her “well-priced … just perfect” purchase from the other side of the state, for $23,500.
Running Suffolk and White Suffolk Sheep at her Hopea stud at Dadswells Bridge, as well as commercial Merinos and an extensive cropping operation, Ms McDonald was looking for a competent worker to be her right hand man in the sheepyards.
“I do have a good dog, but she broke her leg as a pup, so she can really only just hang and push at the back of the mob,” she said.
“So I wanted a good yard dog because my sheep, they’re smart, they know when they’ve got it over you, so I just needed a dog that would have good force in the yards.
“I’ve got a sheep handler, having a dog that backs, has that force, just saves that extra person there.”
Attending the auction with mum Paula, who was celebrating a birthday, the pair said Stella was “meant to be”.
“Today’s the seventh day and she was the seventh lot,” she said.
“We had a budget … it got blown out of the water … (mum) just kept tapping me on the shoulder … she’s going to be worth it.”
Ms McDonald said her wish-list of “five or six dogs” for the day, comprised Beloka or Beloka blood kelpies and she was delighted to secure her number one draft pick.
“I like them to look like a kelpie, I like them to look a certain way.
“She was the top pick for me … I could see her price creeping up all week and I thought we’d have to pay a bit for her.
“But like everything, you get what you pay for and I thought she was the best dog of the day. Just watching her this morning, she was brilliant.”
After initially questioning his own sanity at driving across the state to the little town of Casterton, just to sell one dog, Beloka principal, Paul Macphail, is now practically a local in the dog community – and the buyers reward him well for his loyalty.
In addition to top-priced dog Stella, his six-month-old pup, Felicity, affectionately known as Flea, was also highly sought-after and sold not far behind her older kennel mate - $20,000 on the board at the fall of the hammer.
“We love coming to Casterton, it’s a big weekend, a quality event and we always pick and save some really nice dogs to bring here,” Macphail said.
“It’s a great platform to show off good breeding and training.
“I like to bring a dog that I would like to keep myself and a nice young pup, usually a red and tan female that catches the eye, that’s quite good looking. If you ask Flea, she’ll tell you that she is!
“But seriously, I could have sold her 20 times in the week leading up to the auction.”
The dog auction is not the only this that attracts Mr Macphail and partner Anneke Homan, to the western district these days.
With more than three decades’ experience behind him, both breeding and training, his working dog schools are in demand – he’s been seen at Sheepvention and properties across the district, – and for the past two year, has sat on the judges’ panel for the kelpie weekend stockman’s challenge.
“It just adds to the whole show, you put the horse in there and it gives it that different aesthetic than just a dog trial,” he said. (‘The Macleod’s Daughters’ view, Ms Homan says!).
The Beloka team headed home after the Casterton event “for five minutes” before returning to Ms Homan’s native Holland and running a working dog school for a European client.
“We sold a young pup to a couple in Belgium who have a kelpie stud, just sent a really nice pup over.
“They have the dogs, but not the Australian knowledge, so it’s something we can take over there with the dog.”
By Kristy McDonald
Casterton News