In the late 1950’s a recently married Rob Wilson erected a small loft in his backyard in Glenelg SA little realising it was to be the start of a long association with pigeons, his beloved Gurnay’s in particular, that would eventually lead to the establishment in 1989 of the GURNAYVILLE LOFTS pigeon stud.
Between 1957 and 1979 Rob had several moves due to his involvement in the Australian Army Survey Corps which included a 2 year stint in Canada where he still managed to fly winning 1st, 2nd and 3rd in the Canadian Young Bird Derby.
In 1979 Rob left the Army and took up a role with the Castlemaine City Council. Living 10 miles out of Castlemaine on a rural property certainly helped Rob develop his Gurnay pigeons further.
In 1989 Rob and his wife Margie moved back to Adelaide and purchased the property in East Gawler that became the home of the Gurnayville Pigeon Stud. Rob imported and bought birds that had been imported by other flyers to strengthen and extend the stud operation.
Along with the Gurnay’s Rob also had Janssens, Cattrysse, Van De Wegen, Delbar, Van Wanroy, Busschaert, Jan Aarden, Bricoux, Desmet Matthyy and the Kirkpatricks enabling Australian fanciers to access some new and wonderful bloodlines. Much success came from these families with many winners being reported annually.
In 1996 Rob was unfortunately diagnosed with chronic bird lung and made the decision to sell the birds and the Gurnayville Lofts name to me. After settling on a price I travelled to Gawler with Lindsay Smith and returned with 80 pair of stock birds and 10 youngsters from the best pairs.
Nearly 20 years on many of the original families have been sold on and new families bought in such as the Ron Williamson’s, M & D Evans Vandenabeele, Huybregt and Wickham to continue on the tradition of supplying superior stock at an affordable price.
I have had a lifetime of involvement with farming and Stud sheep and I believe that has given me the advantage of having good stock sense and animal husbandry. I look forward to continuing to supply quality pigeons.