The Dorper and White Dorper sheep are breeds developed in South Africa to fill the need at that time for fast growing hardy meat sheep that would perform well even in arid environments. The first embryos were imported into Australia in 1996. As they do well under a diverse range of environmental conditions, Dorper and White Dorpers have since spread to all sheep grazing areas of Australia. Giving maximum returns for little inputs has made these sheep extremely popular. The growth in both the numbers of these sheep and the people farming them in the past 5 years has been phenomenal.