Pioneering days of Miriam Vale and district', Queensland by W. G. Blomfield, 1946-1947 - Page 133

breed them, & how they were bred. They all had the correct prick ears, & tan about the muzzle & legs, which none of them had 60 years ago, probably a cross  with the KELPIE? sheep dog. And the Judges also would not admit that they were bred at Miriam Vale many years ago. A good cattle dog is better than a man in many cases, & a beast that breaks away, & is brought back by a dog or dogs, seldom breaks away again.

It s not necessary for a dog to be heeling too often; just the mere fact of a dog being behind makes the cattle walk along more freely. There are good driving dogs, there are dogs that you can  send up along the side of a mob to turn them, but not too many of them, they go too far. The best dog or dogs with a big mob are those that will stick to a beast that breaks away.

My best dog was a NSW Blue short called NELLIE, who was given to me because she was blamed for killing sheep. She would never leave a beast that broke away. Have gone back a mile or more, & found her with a beast in a water hole. If there were only two of us she would attend to the tail of the mob on her own, seldom heeling any of them, just going to & fro along