Premier Poultry Yards operated out of this Central Wagga address. Photo: Museum of the Riverina.
Today the Museum of the Riverina invites us to step back in time with this vibrant advertisement for Premier Poultry Yards, operated by William Wilson in Wagga Wagga, NSW.
This colourful image showcases the beautiful Tarcutta Street homestead that stood as the centrepiece of the poultry business.
Built at the turn of the 20th century (c. 1902) this three-bedroom house with its lush gardens was a proud symbol of local enterprise and success in the booming interest in exotic poultry.
Premier Poultry Yards dominated the regional show circuit and offered a range of high-quality poultry products and breeding stock in a business that thrived thanks to the dedication of Mr Wilson.
An article in The Daily Advertiser in May 1902 praised the “enterprising fancier” of chickens for his “scrupulously clean” pens and yards and birds that are “healthy and show signs of the utmost care and attention”.
Mr Wilson was described as an “object lesson” in the field of raising “fancy birds” and is quoted as saying that Wagga had “nothing special” in the chook department before he began breeding.
The city’s leading fancier was complimented on his modern set-up that boasted a “grit-crusher” to grind up shells and china, and a “bone-crusher” to add more fresh calcium to the diet of his birds.
“Mr Wilson’s industry is capable of expansion, but even now it is a credit to Wagga enterprise,” the story said.
“A large town like Wagga has grand scope for this sort of thing, and when the interest spreads sufficiently, as it is bound to do sooner or later, the local poultry shows will produce a lot of friendly rivalry that will be a good thing in its way for the district.”
A story from August 1902 celebrated Premier Poultry Yards’ success at a number of regional shows and the prestigious NSW Pigeon, Poultry, and Dog Show.
Mr Wilson was awarded the second prize for a Buff Orpington cockerel in “perhaps the strongest competition in the state”.
The story went on to declare that his “birds are a fine example of what careful attention to breeding can do”.
“He makes a specialty of but four breeds … Buff Orpingtons, White Leghorns, Minorcas, and Wyandottes, keeping one pen of each. A glance around the various pens would delight an expert.”
Several years later in April 1906, a contributor to the Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, writing under the nom-de-plume The Eagle, described a visit to the Premier Poultry Farm and Mr Wilson, who is “widely known throughout the Riverina as a breeder of first quality birds, having taken the cream of the prizes at the various shows.”
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