Sheep replaced at Nikenbah school

THREE months after their sheep flock was decimated in a dog attack, students at Glendyne Education and Training Centre welcomed their replacements yesterday.

(from left) Gootchie farmer Geoff Davies, Glendyne students Nathan Dacolias and River Webster, Bunnings representatives Ben Hawkshaw and Tam Geritz, agriculture teacher Mark Macrae and student Kyle Reid. . Picture: Alistair Brightman

ALMOST three months after their sheep flock was decimated in a dog attack, students at Glendyne Education and Training Centre welcomed their replacements yesterday.

Seven ewes and a ram trotted into a reinforced compound designed to keep out attacking dogs which had previously dug under the fence at the Nikenbah school.

Glendyne principal Dale Hansen said it was only through strong community support and donations that the flock had been replenished because the school could not afford to replace them.

Rural supplier Nikenbah Dundowran Co-Op donated the posts, fencing and gate for an enclosure that will be used at night, organised concrete for the footings and helped the agriculture students build it.

Bunnings Maryborough paid for the sheep and farmer Geoff Davies drove one-and-a-half hours from Gootchie, south of Tiaro, to deliver them.

“The community response was fantastic,” Mr Hansen said.

Agriculture teacher Mark Macrae said the students had been looking forward to the arrival of the sheep with great anticipation.

The sheep will roam in a three-hectare fenced area during the day and, he said, the students had dug extra netting into weak areas of the fence to stop dogs digging under it.

He said they were also considering getting maremma sheepdogs, which originated in Italy, to protect the flock, especially during school holidays.

Mr Hansen said some of the sheep were in lamb, similar to the ones they had lost.

The previous donated flock of eight had to be put down in March after being mauled in a dog attack less than two months after the students had collected them from a NSW farming family.

Two dogs were caught in the sheep enclosure and while one of the dogs was destroyed the other, named Molly, is still in the pound and awaiting the outcome of an appeals process.

Originally published as Sheep replaced at Nikenbah school