Not unlike the many new and second-hand car sales yards found in every city, suburb, town and regional centre today, Horse Livestock Sale Yards were everywhere in the horse drawn era. This included those along Parramatta Road Camperdown where we find so many car yards today.
The City of Sydney was a much smaller place in 1896 and so horse sales were conducted right in the centre of today’s bustling city of Sydney. Often called Horse Bazaars, sales were conducted at least twice weekly with horses coming from as far away as Tamworth and the Hunter Valley on a regular basis.
Looking through old copies of the Sydney Morning Herald classifieds we find that one of the main Agents was William Inglis, the founder of Sydney’s current premier bloodstock and other livestock auction businesses. There were many other agents across the Sydney scene one was Beadell’s who held auctions in their yards at 68 Hunter Street Sydney on the corner of what is known today as Chifley Square.
It was here at Beadell’s on Wednesday the 29th of April 1896 that Mr A B “Banjo” Paterson sold two of his polo ponies DINAH and SLIM JIM. Banjo was the Captain of the New South Wales Polo Team and played for several Sydney Polo Clubs travelling as far out as Camden.