The Newcastle and Hunter Region GSDC was founded in 1974. The first president was Roy Mepham, and with Secretary Ron Fraser went about to build a successful club with a small band of enthusiasts who wish to train an exhibit the German Shepherd dog.

 

In the early years the focus was to establish the training clubhouse (which we still use today), which became the central hive of activity. During this period the club’s ideas got bigger and in 1994 Newcastle held its first National Show.

 

The 22nd National was held at the club grounds and proved a small club can hold an event of this size are running very successfully. The committee of that error raised enough funds to build a new clubhouse close to the current show rings, it has been updated slightly since 1994 Newcastle held its first national show.

 

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The next big event for Newcastle was a 2006 main breed show. This highly successful event was hosted by a very small band of helpers that worked tirelessly to make sure it was not only run smoothly but everyone had a great time.

 

It was not till 2012 when Newcastle once again hosted a National – this time it was held at the Hunter Valley Gardens and it certainly had the WOW factor, awesome venue and the functions were first class. It was a great effort by the committee to put together such an event and is a National to remember.

 

Over the 43 years the club has been going we have only had four presidents; these include Roy Mepham, Neil Richardson, Keith Sneddon, and our current President Sean Lynch. Also most of our committee members are long-standing members; including Julie O'Sullivan who was treasurer for over 10 years and Peter Belic as Chief Instructor, his wife Annette has also held many positions.

Peter introduced the “Backpack Walks” to our club, which are highly successful; it brings our club and the German Shepherd dog to the public. A few of our members have now achieved over 300 km on this walk.