The story of Major General Kenneth Mackay OBE and the first Australian Horse is tied to the history of the south west slopes, its earliest settlement, and the growth of our community.
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The Mackay family took up Wallendbeen Station during an era when vast squatting runs predominated, from Ned Ryan’s Galong to Wallendbeen, held by the Mackays, John Hurley’s Cootamundra and the Roberts family at Currawong.
Mackay was a protectionist politician, along with our first prime minister, Sir Edmund Barton.
He advocated for trade tariffs and a strong capacity for self defence. Mackay was also a keen horseman and a military historian.
These factors shaped his beliefs that a mounted light horse, capitalising on Australian bush skills and combining the functions of infantry and cavalry, would create a highly effective military force.
Independently wealthy and therefore able to finance the venture, Mackay used his own electorate as a starting point for the 1st Australian Horse.
As a politician and landholder, his decision to raise the Australian Horse at Murrumburrah was a strategic one.
Murrumburrah was centrally placed in the electorate between the remaining large stations and located on the main railway line.
The timing is also significant: Australia was about to federate and the Boer War was looming for the Empire. Mackay’s troop would not be a Murrumburrah or Cootamundra troop, but an Australian one.
This was the first time a colonial military group had used the name “Australian”.
Following the Boer War, Mackay retained regimental command of the First Australian Horse.
He was instrumental in establishing many Light Horse regiments and as a direct result of his skill in doing so, was asked to found the Australian Army Reserve from returned soldiers and older Australian Horse volunteers.
He was its first director-general from 1916. He was appointed as OBE in 1920 in recognition of his long military service, and retired with the honorary rank of Major General.
While there are many stories and legends about the Light Horse in Australian military history, it all begins with Major General Kenneth Mackay at Murrumburrah, a unique legacy for our community to celebrate.