In April 2000 the Koolie Club of Australia was formed
and the inaugural committee of 8 were elected and began the arduous task of
establishing an organization to rally Koolie owners/breeders together
and to begin a
Koolie Registry. One of the first tasks of the Koolie Club of Australia
at it's inaugural meeting, with 50 koolie owners in attendance, was
to determine the name most suited to represent the club. It is each
member's choice which spelling they prefer, but for the club to move
forward, to undertake incorporation and create registration and
membership forms, one spelling had to be adopted. There was
extensive discussion at that meeting between all present as to what wording would set
the breed apart and stand it in good stead for the future. It was
decided, as far as the club was concerned, to not refer to the "German"
part of the Koolie name because many people
mistakenly believed the Koolie was a German breed when in fact the
Koolie is considered one of Australia’s oldest working breeds. It was
also decided the “K” would be adopted to Koolie so it would not be
mistaken for the word Collie. If the breed was German or evolved by
German immigrants, there is no "C" in the German language and they
would write it as Koolie. There is no breed called the Koolie or
Coolie in Germany. At the time there was an even distribution
of members using the "Koolie" spelling and those using "Coolie".
There was no one present with any strong feelings against the idea
so once discussed the name of the club was agreed upon easily. The breed has been a truly farm breed, bred for work
only and some long term
breeders, who have not kept breeding records will use either spelling.
The majority of
members are now as comfortable with "Koolie" as they are with Koolies.
As the koolie has become more recognized due mainly to the advent of
the internet, around the world this has now evolved to be known as
the Australian Koolie, giving true recognition to the country of
origin of this wonderful breed.
It is similar to the Australian Cattle Dog that is equally well known as the Heeler, Queensland Heeler, Blue Heeler as well as ACD or Australian Cattle Dog.
