From the Murray Mail archive: drawn from the club's newsletters of April 2011 to March 2026, quoted as written at the time.
After more than ten years of work by the club. The ANKC (now Dogs Australia) accepted the Murray River Retriever as a Group 3 gundog at its meeting on 16 October 2021, and from 1 January 2022 the club’s own register became the breed’s way onto the national register. On the way, the breed had to lose “Curly Coated” from its name.
The Murray is an old breed: a working dog of the Murray River and its duck swamps for well over a century. The club is young, and for most of that history nobody wrote the dogs down. What follows is the story as the club told it to its members at the time, in the Murray Mail.
Why recognition mattered
A breed without papers has no standing with councils or kennel clubs, and tougher laws on breeding were coming. Looking back in 2022, Ken Jelbart, the club’s President and Registrar, put it plainly: “with the stricter Domestic Animal Legislation led by Victoria … it was a necessity to ensure the survival of the breed.”
2011: first steps
In early 2011 the committee met at Cooma “and it was decided to pursue a State based Incorporation of the Association”, wrote the Chairman, Mark Hehir. The same issue announced the first DNA work: “We are very excited about the opportunity we have been given to have a selection of Murrays DNA tested for free.”
The Registrar, Don Harding, had visited the American Water Spaniel Field Association to compare the two breeds, and called on owners to help: “The relationship should be either confirmed or denied by the DNA project. I would like to encourage any owners who want to participate in the DNA testing program to contact the Association.”
2013 to 2015: the application, lost and found
The first application to the ANKC went nowhere. In March 2014 Ken Jelbart reported: “Unfortunately the person responsible for the application to ANKC left DogsVictoria just prior to the ANKC AGM and our application was not attended to in the transition.”
By the 2014 AGM it was “now definitely on the agenda for the ANKC AGM in October”, he wrote, adding a warning: “This may necessitate a name change, according to the rumour mill even though DogsVic don’t see it as a problem.”
Then, in March 2015: “Breed recognition finally…. from the ANKC meeting held in October. It was unanimously RESOLVED that the Murray River Curly Coated Retriever Association Inc be accepted onto the Sporting Register.” Dogs Victoria told the club on 30 January 2015 that the breed had been accepted onto its Sporting Register, which meant Murrays could be registered with Dogs Victoria.
The name: why “Curly Coated” had to go
The acceptance came with a condition nobody had mentioned. In mid 2015 Ken Jelbart wrote: “Although we had been advised that we had been accepted, no one informed us of the requirement to change the name so it was dissimilar to Curly Coated Retrievers.”
At the October 2015 AGM at Moama, “It was voted unanimously at the AGM for the change of name to Murray River Retriever Association, because of problems with the ‘Curly Coated’ it was necessary to change the name.” The Murray River Curly Coated Retriever became the Murray River Retriever, and the club its Association.
When the decision reached the Dogs Vic Magazine in March 2016, it named the breed the “Murray Valley Curly Coated Retriever”. The Murray Mail’s reply: “We hope the Valley is a typo.”
2016 to 2018: recognised, but not as a gundog
In June 2016 the club had its first official recognition: “we have finally, after a 3 year struggle, got official recognition from ANKC and DogVic, as a Sporting Breed and Kindred Body. … We owe a great deal of this to Ruth Bell and Di Hughes for all the initial work that was put in.”
But a kindred body is not a recognised breed, and the Murray was not listed as a gundog. That mattered to hunters: Victoria’s Game Management Authority only allows dogs on the ANKC’s gundog list to retrieve game birds. In March 2017 the President, Debra Wright, wrote to the Authority asking for the breed to be added. In October 2017 Ken Jelbart, by then Registrar, was working “to ensure that all Murrays are registered, on the Association register, working towards the recognition of the breed with the ANKC”, and warned it would “still take approximately three to four more years before formal recognition”.
The breed standard
A recognised breed needs a written standard. As Ken Jelbart later explained: “The breed standard was drawn up using Ruth Bell’s original standard, together with consulting with a number of traditional breeders. The subcommittee submitted their draft to the ANKC who made some further changes.”
In his 2021 annual report he was “fairly confident that by the time of this meeting the Murray will have been approved as a purebred by the ANKC”, thanks to “the assistance of Jane Harvey (janedogs.com), an International All Breeds judge and the support of Vin McPhee the new President of DogsVic.”
16 October 2021: recognised
“I am pleased to announce that the Murray River Retriever has been accepted as a Utility Gun Dog, Group 3 Gun Dogs, by the ANKC at their meeting on 16 October, 2021.”
The club’s years of record keeping paid off: “The Murray River Retriever Association has been running the development register specified by the ANKC for 8 years and now that ANKC recognition has been achieved, this register will be used by the ANKC from 1 January 2022.”
From March 2022, dogs on the club’s register “and have 3 complete parental generations on their pedigree” became eligible for the ANKC main or limited register, and “Since the 1st of April 2022 the Murrays are now able to compete in Conformation classes and in Gun Dog trials.”
What came next
2022 was, in one breeder’s words, “our first year of showing”, with judges “from nearly all states, and some from overseas”. By June 2022 some 17 dogs from Victoria, NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia had asked for the club’s approval to register, and pups had already won Best of Group in South Australia and Queensland. By early 2024 Ch Barokamurray Cowboy Tequila had gone Best in Group, “A first for the breed with a group entry 74 gundogs.”
Recognition brought its own problems. In 2023 Ken Jelbart warned: “Some breeders have also been advertising and selling dogs stating that they are eligible for ANKC registration which is not the case.” Anyone buying a puppy can now check a breeder or puppy on this website.
And the hunters got their answer. In June 2024 the Murray Mail reported that Debra Wright, after years of letters, had “received a letter … advising that the Murray can now be used as a hunting dog”. The new Victorian regulations followed in September 2024; Leon Wright tells that part of the story in “In the doghouse” for the SSAA.
Key points
- 2011: the club sets out to incorporate, and the first free DNA testing begins.
- October 2014: the ANKC accepts the Association onto its Sporting Register.
- October 2015: the name changes to Murray River Retriever, because “Curly Coated” was not allowed.
- 2016 to 2018: recognised as a Sporting Breed and Kindred Body, but not yet as a gundog.
- 16 October 2021: the ANKC accepts the breed as a Group 3 gundog; the club’s register is used from 1 January 2022.
- 1 April 2022: Murrays can compete in conformation classes and gundog trials.
- 2024: Murrays can legally retrieve game birds in Victoria.
Drawn from the Murray Mail, the club’s newsletter, issues 3 to 62 (April 2011 to March 2026): the reports of Mark Hehir, Ken Jelbart, Debra Wright, Don Harding and Di Hughes, among others, quoted as they wrote them at the time. The Dogs Vic Magazine line is quoted from its reprint in issue 22. Members can read the issues in the Murray Mail archive.
