ABOUT AEI
The principals of AEI, Janie Hicks and Dr Ian Davison, have a depth of expertise and history in the alpaca industry.
Janie (pictured left) was born into a family with generational history in the Australian Merino wool industry. She grew up on the family sheep station of half a million acres with 35,000 sheep. Her family were amongst the founding pioneers of the Australian alpaca industry in 1988. Following on from a few years experience in international hotel management, Janie came to manage Coolaroo Alpaca Stud, one of the oldest and most respected alpaca studs in the country. She introduced to the Alpaca industry the SRS system, a scientific method of selective breeding initially designed for the Merino sheep industry. In 2001, she spent 12 months in Peru researching alpaca fleece, and established the foundation parameters for fleece density and productivity which now benchmark the Australian industry. She is an accredited US alpaca judge, and has judged in Europe and the USA. She has exported alpacas to Europe, China, South Africa, Thailand and New Zealand, and is a Councillor of the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW.
Ian (pictured right) is a practising orthopaedic surgeon, and has bred and shown alpacas for over 20 years. He and his late wife, Harriet, established the highly acclaimed Illawarra Alpaca Stud, and together won most successful breeder at Sydney Royal Agricultural Show for five consecutive years. For four years, Ian served as the President of the Australian Alpaca Association, during which time Australia convened the inaugeral World Alpaca Conference, attracting over 400 delegates and the Presidents of seven national alpaca associations. Ian was founding director of the Australian Alpaca Fleece Marketing Organisation and a major contributor in the design and implementation of the world's first programme of quantitative breeding values for alpacas, the Australian AGE (Across-herd Genetic Evaluation programme). He has exported alpacas to Europe and New Zealand, and has recently merged his Illawarra herd with Coolaroo to form the Coolawarra Alpaca Stud.
With properties in coastal NSW and the adjacent Southern Highlands (close to Sydney's International Airport), access to large numbers of award winning stock bred to national champions, and a wealth of experience in the alpaca industry and alpaca exports, AEI are ideally positioned to service your alpaca livestock requirements. We offer not only alpacas, but experience, expertise, consultancy, training, and assistance in selection to meet your specific requirements.
