Anthony David Parsons OAM is an Australian author and kelpie breeder.
He founded the well-known Kelpie stud “Karrawarra” in 1950 and has gone on to become the breed's most passionate and hardest working advocate. [1] Before that, he was a professional sheep and wool classer. [2] Don Burke said that Tony Parsons has done more to developing the Kelpie as a working dog than anyone else. [3] Kelpie breeder Jan Lowing says that "Parsons (Karrawarra) was responsible for seeking out and preserving Kelpie bloodlines after the fiasco of two World Wars, during which many ‘studs’ disappeared". [4]
Parsons spent time in the Mudgee area 300 km north west of Sydney up to 1972, [5] and based several of his fiction books in the region. He subsequently lived at East Greenmount, Queensland near Toowoomba [6] where his Kelpie stud is located.
Source: [7]
In 1992, he was awarded the prestigious Medal of the Order of Australia for his “contribution to the propagation of the Australian Kelpie sheep dog”. [8]