They’re soft and snuggly ... and spitters. Pauline Glasser fell in love with alpacas at the Royal Sydney Show about 40 years ago. Now she owns about 40 of them.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Pauline Glasser has a good reason for farming alpacas — she likes them and it was a case of love at first sight.
Pauline and her husband Colin first saw alpacas at the Royal Sydney Show about 40 years ago.
“We looked at them and loved them and said one day we’ll have some of those,” she said.
“The opportunity came up to buy some for my husband’s 50th birthday and you don’t buy one, you buy two and then you buy a herd.
“They were different at the time and the industry has lots of friendly people. They’re great to have and we love them.”
Their farm Wahgungurry Alpacas, overlooking the Clarence River at Lower Southgate in northern NSW, is home to about 40 alpacas and Pauline is vice-president of the southern Queensland and northern NSW region for the Australian Alpaca Association.
In 2024, she was awarded the Shane Read Medal for volunteer achievement, contribution, service and leadership to the industry.
Earlier this year, the association hosted events across Australia to mark its 35 years and to recognise National Alpaca Week, with the national show held at Bendigo in August.
Alpacas were originally imported from Peru to Australia back in the 19th century but they died out before returning in the 1980s, when a burgeoning industry started to evolve.
Australia has one of the biggest alpaca industries outside of Peru with a strong export market, particularly to China.
Pauline grew up on the farm but became a textile and food tech teacher, while Colin was a mechanic. Both retired early.
“This is our retirement fun, though my husband wouldn’t necessarily say it’s fun,” Pauline laughed.
Pauline gets to mix her teaching skills into her retirement as an alpaca farmer.
“They can be used for a lot of different things, but it was the textile side of it that interested me,” she said.
“And making scones for people coming to the farm is not a big issue for me.”
In fact, she cooked 16 batches of scones when they hosted a Mother’s Day open farm this year.
The 40 alpacas live on just six acres, supplemented by some agistment land.
“What’s nice about alpacas is that if you’re prepared to feed them at the right times, you can have five or six to the acre and raise them on a small farm,” Pauline said.
This year hasn’t been so good.
“We’ve had too much rain. We’ve had plenty of feed but now hay is very hard to get because of fire ants in Queensland and, generally, the local farming communities have had health problems from the wet land. The paddocks are just not drying out.
“We live on a hill but we’re still wet.”
Alpacas take the Glassers across Australia, usually covering about 30,000km a year. They were heading off to the Australian National Alpaca Show in Bendigo in August to see the best of the best in the Australian Industry and they hope to one day make it to Peru.
The northern NSW region doesn’t grow the thickest fleeces — that’s usually reserved for good sheep country — but they are made into yarn and then into products such as scarves, jumpers and socks.
“We have a variety of product that is Australian grown and Australian made … we call it gate to garment,” Pauline says.
The local AAA branch has dyeing and spinning days and has weavers who make beautiful product.
“It’s like value adding to your farm,” Pauline said.
Apart from hosting tours where alpacas are popular photo subjects, the Glassers also sell alpacas to Airbnb properties as pets because they are quiet, and to free range chicken farms and sheep farms, especially for ewes that are having twins.
“Alpacas have a natural herding instinct, so they will herd any twin left by the mother,” Pauline said.
“Sheep farmers tell me the alpacas increase their lambing rates. They have a protection instinct against foxes and hawks, but not with dogs.”
Pauline and Colin come from a cattle background so are used to dealing with stock, but alpacas are different. They take a long time to reproduce — 11½ months to have a baby — and shearing is a big day.
“You have to stretch them out on a table on their sides with legs in braces,” Pauline said.
“They don’t like it but it’s the only way to do it safely and it’s only five minutes. They have to be shorn once a year for their own health.”
The region is hosting a learn to shear course because of a shortage of shearers.
“There has to be some young people who want to earn good money shearing alpacas,” Pauline said.
“You can get good money per alpaca, although it is a more difficult process than sheep.”
Alpacas are mainly known for their fibre, but there is a small meat industry in Australia. It’s a very lean meat, but Pauline says it is best with added spices.
The fleece from alpaca saddles is used for fine products such as jumpers and fleece from the legs and the neck for doona, padding and insulation. They use every part when they’re shorn.
Alpacas come in 16 different colour variations, but breeders are drawn to white for commercial use and the natural colours are popular with spinners and weavers.
Pauline wants a variety of colours in her herd because they sell to the pet industry.
“I advertise my saddle fleeces to all the spinners and weavers across Australia because it is naturally coloured with browns, greys and whites.”
Alpaca fibre is super fine, and super soft, prized for its soft, warm, light, fine and silky lustrous quality. Elite examples are like cashmere and in demand by luxury fashion houses around the world.
Wahgungurry has achieved many broad ribbons in the Huacaya and Suri animal halter and fleece sections over the years.
Husbandry wise, looking after alpacas can be a challenge.
“When we started 20 years ago, we didn’t have a lot of vet knowledge. So over the years, the association members have assisted a lot of vets to help them,” Pauline said.
“Alpacas tend to be very stoic, but very prone to worm diseases. They’ll go and go and not let on that they’re sick and be dead the next day. There’s an instinct to show that they’re not sick and it’s hereditary.
“Babies are born, generally, between early morning and lunchtime.”
The one question everyone asks is do they spit?
They belong to the camel family, so yes, they do.
“They all spit but they tend to spit at each other as a pecking order, or spit in the feed bin so no-one else will eat it,” Pauline said.
“They also spit when they’re being shorn.
“It’s a positive that we’ve been an industry, however, if you’re a young person with expensive land, you’re not going to go into alpacas as the number one thing to make your money. I call it a lifestyle and we make enough from value-adding exercises (sales, yarn, visitors, alpaca beans) that it covers the feed and vet bills.
“They’re great to have, great for textiles, but you have to work at it, like anything.”