For a long time Australia rode on the sheep's back. Many people believe that would not have been possible if not for working dogs - the unpaid, unsuperannuated employees who spent their days bringing in the sheep, yarding them and loading them onto trucks.

Of course working dogs have also been valuable in cattle country. The breed that has overwhelmingly been the dog of choice is the kelpie. Kelpies originated on a property called Worrock station near Casterton, in the western district of Victoria.

Back in the 1870s a Scottish grazier called George Robertson mated two Scottish collies. A black and tan bitch, which resulted from that coupling, so impressed a young stockman by the name of Jack Gleeson that he offered to buy her.

Robertson refused to sell and instead gave the pup to his nephew. Gleeson, undeterred, in the dead of night on the Glenelg River offered his horse in exchange for Robertson's nephew's pup.

Gleeson called her "Kelpie" - in his native Scottish, meaning "a malignant water spirit haunting the fords in streams in the shape of a horse".

In the Ardlethen area of New South Wales he mated her with two other Scottish collies, "Moss" and "Caesar" and so the breed now known as the kelpie was born.

Nancy Withers of Pomanda Working Kelpie Stud said Gleeson had an eye for the new breed's potential.

"Jack Gleeson was only very young, only in his 20s when he got Kelpie but he was already known as an excellent stockman and horseman and he really did appreciate good stock," she said.

"So once he saw this strain of working dog, obviously he though they were very high quality and he wanted one," she said.

One hundred and thirty years later, Gleeson's eye for a good dog was confirmed when hundreds of prospective dog owners lined up at the fourth annual Casterton working dog auction.

Organisers believe it is the only such auction in Australia and perhaps the world.

Ian O'Connell, organiser of the Working Dog Auction has spent hundreds of hours and no small amount of his own money organising the event.

It is completely run by volunteers, although dog owners had to pay a $10 entry fee for each animal they had for sale.

Mr O'Connell says he first came up with the idea for an auction 10 years ago, when he was at a clearing sale.

"They'd sold all the plant and they were selling the stock and they had this old black dog there that was moving the sheep around as they were selling the stock," he said.

"When they'd finished selling the stock they put this dog up for auction and I was just absolutely amazed at how much interest there was in this dog.

"And it was simply because he was a handy dog and people had seen that by the way he was working and I thought there was a golden opportunity to make this so much bigger," Mr O'Connell explained.

For 15 years, Dave Sweatman of Glencairn Kelpies, has been a professional dog breeder of the quintessentially Australian canine, with a work ethic second to none.

"Kelpies have been bred to suit Australian conditions and they're a dog that can be adaptable to pretty much any situation, whether it be yard work, hobby work or large mustering on the outback country," he said.

"A kelpie shouldn't be taught to work, it should just be taught obedience, the working style is natural, it should be bred into the dog," Nancy Withers said.

As a member of the Working Kelpie Council and one of just a few full status registered breeders, Nancy Withers was at first a bit wary of the auction system.

"It's hard to guarantee a dog whey you are not sure who is going to buy it," she said.

"While I'll try and talk to prospective buyers at an auction, if you don't know the person, it could be anybody at the end of the day. It's a bit difficult to guarantee a dog because it might go to the wrong person," she said.

"The first thing you have to do when you get an inquiry is to find out what the person wants the dog for; it's really good if they come to the property and see the dogs you've got so you can sit the person down and work out the temperament of the type of person who wants the dog," Dave Sweatman said.

What both Dave Sweatman and Nancy Withers found though was that people interested in buying one of their dogs, spoke to the stud owners before bidding started.

Eighty-five dogs were on sale - most of them Kelpies. They were put through a series of trials in the yards, the pens and in loading a truck.

By mid afternoon it was onto the business end of the day, to see what the dogs were worth.

There were 137 people registered as bidders, and the older dogs, those who had found their role in life, were the first to go under the hammer.

Organisers found the three-month to nine-month-old pups were the hardest to sell. These dogs were often nervous in the yards, as yet not used to crowds and did not always show themselves in the best light.

At the end of the day, 71 per cent of the animals on the market had sold; 17 fetched over $1,000 and the average price was $621.

Tania Guaran believed it was a great way to buy a dog.

"We've never been down here before but it's just fantastic, you get to see a lot of dogs, otherwise you'd have to travel too many places," she said.

Organiser Ian O'Connell said despite it being entirely volunteer-run, he could not stop the annual event now if he tried.

"The first auction we had, we could only get 30 dogs together and there were only two dogs that you could say were up to the standard," he said.

"And what we've found is that we have the credibility of the trainers and breeders now and they are bringing some of their best bloodlines and introducing them into this whole big, wide market that we have formed, and the quality of dogs has been exceptional," Mr O'Connell said.

"It's going that fast and increasing in size. What we are really going to work on is consolidating it and making sure all dogs that come here are good quality, well bred, well trained dogs because that's what people are coming to buy."

this story has been extracted from the landline website.