The spring Aveley Ranch sheep drive took place on Saturday, June 9. It started from the ranch at 4:30 a.m. and arrived at Allingham Pasture about two hours later. There were sheep dogs and eight people driving 1,200 sheep - including lambs - through Vavenby to the pasture
Frank Allingham originally homesteaded Allingham Pasture in 1886. He was the first European settler in the upper North Thompson Valley. Theodore Albert Moilliet, who established Aveley Ranch in 1906, would like to have bought the pasture from him but Allingham would not sell. Moilliet rented it in 1919 and started grazing sheep there in 1920. This was when the sheep moves through town began.
Allingham died in 1938. Jack Moilliet, who took over Aveley Ranch at 16 years of age after his father Theodore tragically died in 1935, bought Allingham Pasture in 1940 from Allingham’s estate.
Jack’s son, Ian, and Ian’s sons continue to carry on what his grandfather began.