The Australian kelpie is acclaimed as the best all-round stock dog in the world, but the breed's origins have long been shrouded in mystery — now a new book claims to have found some vital answers to its ancestry, including proof of a dash of dingo in its DNA.

Key points: New book points to dingo DNA from Fraser Island and the mainland in the Australian kelpie

New book points to dingo DNA from Fraser Island and the mainland in the Australian kelpie Author Bill Robertson said dingo genes came about in late 1870s, when one mated with a collie

Author Bill Robertson said dingo genes came about in late 1870s, when one mated with a collie Fines for early sheepmen for keeping dingo-cross dogs thought to be behind secrecy of bloodline

If you have ever watched a kelpie at work and noted similarities to Australia's native dog, the association is more than coincidental.

Renowned for its boundless energy, speed, tenacity and supreme ability to herd and move stock, Australia's most famed working dog owes some of its qualities to Australia's native dog.

The kelpie, proclaimed an official dog breed in 1905, is widely acknowledged to derive from Scottish collies bred at Warrock Station near Casterton in western Victoria in the late 1870s.

Today the breed is found everywhere — from sheep country in the dusty outback to the frozen wastes of the Arctic where it is used to herd reindeer.

Some historians go as far as to say that without the kelpie, sheep flocks could never have inhabited vast tracts of Australia's harsh inland and the nation's ride to prosperity through wool might never have happened.

Now a book by former champion shearer Bill Robertson claims to have uncovered the real story behind the origins of the working dog.

"There were 26 versions that we had counted of how the kelpie dog originated and where it came from," said Mr Robertson.

His book Origins of the Australian Kelpie — Exposing the myths and Fabrications from the Past, is a detailed investigation the breed and the result of 12 years' work.

It has long been rumoured that the original kelpies were developed by interbreeding Scottish collies with the dingo.

Mr Robertson turned to science to try and find a definitive answer.

"I decided I'd get the University of New South Wales to do DNA testing on some foundation bloodlines," he said.

He paid for the tests and though expensive, he said it was money well spent.

"The final analysis was that there was between 3 and 4 per cent dingo markers in the kelpie strain and those dingoes were both from Fraser Island and mainland Australia."

'It's the spirit, the grit, the ability to handle the heat'

Mr Robertson believes the infusion of dingo genes began at Warrock Station in the late 1870s when a dingo or dingo-cross was bred with a collie. But why has the dingo's pivotal role remained hidden in the shadows of the past?

Mr Robertson said the answer was obvious — that as the scourge of sheepmen, dingoes were reviled. For much of Australia's history a bounty was paid for each one destroyed.

Mr Robertson said the dingo's traits could be seen in the modern kelpie. ( ABC News )

Punitive fines were even imposed on anyone who kept a dingo-cross, so secrecy meant the real story of the kelpie's origins was shrouded in speculation and mystery.

But Mr Robertson said there was no mistaking the dingo's legacy in the modern kelpie.

"It's the spirit, the grit, the ability to handle the heat and the never-say-die characteristic," he said.

"I've seen them so sore they didn't know which foot to put down because they've got bindies [burrs] in every foot.

"And you've gotta say 'wow' that's a courageous dog. And that's where my passion came from, seeing them work in the back country."

Not everyone agrees with Mr Robertson's conclusion. Tony Parsons, an author and authority on the kelpie believes the dingo genes came into the breed came later — several decades into its development.

Unfortunately the DNA tests that confirm the presence of the dingo in the kelpies' ancestry are unable to determine when those dingo genes were introduced to the breed.