The Wettenhall Dogs
Koonda Kennels in Victoria was the best known and largest of the early kennels for the breed in parallel with The Roycrofts and occasionally interchanging stock with them.
In contrast to the Roycrofts, Noel Wettenhall would not hesitate to linebreed and inbreed as the occasion arose and rapidly established a recognisable kennel strain. By putting the one sire over a number of near identically bred bitches, then those offspring back to another one sire the basis for a breed was rapidly established.

Noel Wettenhall had a successful den dog background since 1930, but so impressed was he with the working ability of his newly acquired Jack Russells that he lost no time in crossing them into his old line and his old den dog line has been totallt obsorbed into his Jack Russell kennel.
His kennels bloodlines was strongly represented in all states of Australia both on the show front and also prominently in the many fine working dogs for which Koonda was famous for.

In September 1989 Noel Wettenhall was made a life member of The Jack Russell Terrier Club of Australia of which he was a founding member and past vice-president.

Johnnie JR500 (1963 - 1977)
Squeak (JRI-1) out of Bubbles (JRI-2)
Johnnie 500 was the foundation sire of Mr Noel Wettenhall's Koonda Kennels. He was the most notable of the early sires and considered to be "the greatest Australian Jack Russell of all time" and was the first Australian bred male on the JRTCA's studbook.
He was owned by Noel Wettenhall and bred by Mr George Adams of Ocean Grove. The Adams had imported Jack Russells from two separate villages in Sussex in the early 1960s. Squeak (sire) was a tan and white smooth and Bubbles (dam) was a tan and white rough. Interestingly, the first litter was dispersed through a lost dogs home as no one had heard of the breed and so the pups were unsaleable which is very different from today’s prices and demand.

Johnnie became to Australia what Trump was to the "Reverend".
Johnnie was 11" high and weight 16 lbs. He lived to 14 years of age. Johnnie was a dark tan and white rough coat with a solid coloured head and tail/rump patch. Johnnie was not shown but was a prolific sire. He proved to be a true working and hunting type and he passed this on to many of his pups. One could say that he was he foundation sire of the breed in Australia.

Johnnie JR500 Johnnie JR500 Johno of Koonda JR2516 Jill JR501 Midge JR503 Koonda Bonnie JR661 Tricolour born 4th of January 1975.

The Becketts and Jill
Soon after acquiring Johnnie, Noel Wettenhall obtained a dog pup and a bitch pup from the Becketts, an Immigrant British family newly settled in Walla Walla, NSW.

Unfortunately, nothing is known of the Becketts pair of JRs, not even their names, for the Becketts apparently were not impressed with there new country and soon returned with their dogs to the UK, leaving only one litter here.
Noel could vouch for the authenticity of their dogs, as he saw them in quarantine while he had a Deerhound there.

The male pup, Beckett's Beau JR631 enters our pedigree through it's mating with Doucey, a first cross JR by Johnnie 500. The bitch pup Jill JR501, although too solid for den work, was a matriarch of the breed. She had five litters to Johnnie 500, producing among others Jill II JR506, Josephine JR531 (went to The Roycrofts as a pup), Grasyan Jack JR527 (IBM pedigrees), Midge JR503 and Bradfords's Henry JR608 and his son Brad JR725.

The Johnnie 500 - Jill cross is the foundation of the breed in Australia.