The Rupununi Development Company began operations in 1919 to raise beef cattle for the markets of coastal British Guiana, and takes its name from the far interior savannah where its main ranch is located. It plays an important role in the social history and development of the Rupununi Region, having been largely responsible for the early economic development of the region. Under H.P.C Melville, the Company around 1920 began to develop its formative cattle ranching operations, and began to use the historic Cattle Trail in order to drive cattle from Dadanawa Ranch to Georgetown, thereby creating the first major overland route linking the Rupununi Region to the coast.
Under the management of Harry E. Turner in 1927, the Company began to develop relationships with local Wapishana communities that continue today. In the 1930’s, Dadanawa Ranch employed up to 150 vaqueros during dry season operations, and had become the regional centre of trade for goods including beef, imported products, salt, local produce, and hammocks. Despite all difficulties, including the decline of the price of beef, and the harsh environmental conditions of the Rupununi Savannahs, by the late 1940’s the Company began to generate profitable returns. Moreover, the introduction of Hereford and Zebu cattle into the local Rupununi stock in the early 1940’s marked significant improvements in cattle quality.
During the late 1950’s, the development of air services between Lethem and Georgetown vastly increased the Company’s capacity to service the coastal demand for beef cattle, with animals being slaughtered and flown directly to the capital. At its peak the Company maintained a herd of over 25,000 animals managed by over 60 vaqueros based out of Dadanawa Ranch.
The 1970’s and 80’s saw a drastic decline in the price of beef, which led to a decrease in the volume of Company operations and cattle ranching in the Rupununi overall. Under the management of Stan Brock from 1966 on, Dadanawa Ranch began to attract visitors and the attention of zoos and wildlife documentary film companies, setting the precedent for the Company’s future collaborations with various scientific and television institutions exhibiting the unique ecology and environment of the Rupununi.
Since the late 1980’s, the Company, under the current manager of the ranch, Duane de Freitas, began to release significant portions of its lease to local Amerindian communities. During this time tourism began to grow and was introduced as a complement to regular ranch activities.
With the 2002 discovery of the endangered Red Siskin, a bird that has been extirpated throughout most of its historic range, primarily due to trapping for the cage bird trade and previously unknown in the Rupununi, was discovered in southwestern Guyana by a joint team from the Smithsonian Institute and the SRCS, Dadanawa Ranch has developed an international reputation as an environmentally important area that continues to draw tourists and researchers to the Rupununi Region. Once a common bird in northern Venezuela, it was trapped to near extinction due to the cage bird trade and futile efforts within the industry to selectively breed a red canary.
The rarity and significance of the Red Siskin prompted immediate discussions on the protection of the species. The Smithsonian Institute spearheaded a local conservation approach, and South Rupununi Conservation Society which has its head-quarters at Dadanawa Ranch, were established and mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to protect and monitor Red Siskin populations in the Rupununi Region.
Facts on Dadanawa
- The name “Dadanawa” is a distortion of the local Wapishana Amerindian name of Dadinauwau, or “macaw spirit creek hill”.
- Dadanawa Ranch is one of the most remote ranches in the world, originally covering in excess of 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2) of savannah containing about 5,000 head of cattle. It is located on the Rupununi River in the South Rupununi Savannahs, in the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo Region of Guyana at 2°50′N 59°31′W. It is one of the largest and most isolated cattle ranches in the world.
- Dadanawa started out as a trading post by a man of the name DeRooie about 1865 and was sold with 300 head of cattle in the late 1880s to H.P.C. Melville, a gold prospector from Barbados who found himself lost and near-dead of malaria in the area several years before. The ranch was sold to investors and established as the Rupununi Development Company in 1919.