Sir Walter Celebrates 21 Years on Top Sir Walter Soft Leaf Buffalo is a household name in Australia and has stood the test of time, continuing year after year as Australia’s most preferred choice for the Aussie home lawn. This year Sir Walter celebrates its 21st birthday and due to its superior characteristics and performance, is showing it can continue as Australia’s favourite turf variety for many years to come. The original source of Sir Walter was Mr Brent Redman’s turf farm, Buchanan Turf Supplies in the Hunter Valley area of New South Wales. Mr Redman, a secondgeneration turf farmer with over 40 years’ experience, recognised the demand for an Aussie lawn which was unlike anything available on the market. Brent Redman began turf cutting in the late 70’s and by the mid-80’s had purchased 20 acres in the rich river flats of Maitland. Kikuyu and couch were the main varieties grown during this time, but a small area of about two acres was planted with buffalo grass that was sourced from around the Williamtown and Salt Ash areas.
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At that time buffalo was just buffalo and Mr Redman ended up growing five different varieties within this 2-acre plot. As he had never grown buffalo grass and with limited knowledge for the variety, unfortunately he killed more than he sold! Luckily, a couple of the varieties he was growing did survive. One of these was a very course strain of buffalo, the other was much softer. Mr Redman expanded the farm by purchasing more land next to the existing property and planted more paddocks with these varieties. How was Sir Walter discovered? After becoming the 4th member of the newly formed NSW Turf Producer’s Association, Mr Redman overheard many issues growers in the Windsor area were having with the variety of buffalo they were cultivating. These buffalos, unlike Mr Redman’s, were originally sourced from the Tomago area near Newcastle. As Mr Redman was not having the same issues, he mentioned this to his new contacts and provided them with some samples from his turf farm to trial. One of these contacts
was Charlie Courtney. Mr Courtney coined the phrase ‘soft leaf buffalo’ as a way of describing these new buffalo varieties provided from Mr Redman’s farm. Another of these contacts was John Tebitt, who operated Peninsular Turf. Mr Tebitt trialled some of the buffalo next to some Durban grass under a Morton Bay fig tree. A TV crew were filming a new segment on the Peninsular Turf Farm. Mr Tebitt showed the presenter Mr Redman’s grass and they suggested giving it the name Shademaster, and the name stuck. Mr Redman proceeded to plant large areas with the newly named Shademaster. However, Shademaster had some disadvantages, with poor winter colour, purple colouring and a tendency to develop turf disease such as grey leaf spot. Among the Shademaster, a small area developed, which showed better winter colour, a healthier root system and an increase in size year on year, outgrowing the Shademaster. Mr Redman was impressed with the quality and performance of this buffalo and knew