ALPACA IN AUSTRALIA

For all but 20 years of the last several million, South America has jealously guarded the exclusive custody of an animal as identifiably South American as the kangaroo is Australian. That animal is the alpaca, the first in the world to be domesticated, and one deeply ingrained in the history and culture of Peru.

The alpaca is more than just a noble and enchanting animal. It is also the origin of the exquisite fleece hailed by the ancient Incas as "the fibre of the Gods," highly prized in modern fashion garments.
When alpacas were first exported from South America in 1988, the Australians were quick to sense an opportunity. Some two hundred years previously, Australia had imported the prized Spanish Merino sheep, and by careful breeding and selection over many generations, established it as the international benchmark for fine wool. That experience has become part of the history and culture of Australia, and has built for Australia an industry which has won international acclaim.

Over the last twenty years, alpacas have been embraced by Australians, as much for their luxurious, soft fleece as for their ecological sensitivity. With their soft padded feet which are gentle on fragile soils, and skin which is not subject to fly strike, they are also extremely efficient browsers and grazers.

These qualities have earnt for them the title of the “designer green” livestock alternative. Illawarra and Coolaroo alpaca studs have been a part of that history for twenty years. Coolaroo Alpaca Stud were amongst the first to import alpacas into Australia, and have applied the technology and science they learnt in the wool industry to breeding advanced alpacas.

They have exported their alpacas to Japan, China, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada, UK and Switzerland. They pioneered the application of the SRS breeding system, developed for Merino sheep, to breed alpacas with finer, longer, softer and heavier fleeces, and spent a year researching SRS traits in Peru. That system has now been embraced by serious alpaca breeders on three continents.

Illawarra has applied SRS principles to breeding their alpacas for over five years. They have also been pioneers in the design and application of the Australian system of estimated breeding values for alpacas—the Across-herd Genetic Evaluation programme— which measures the genetic merit of individual alpacas for commercial traits.