We present the first results from a pilot study to search for distant radio galaxies in the southern hemisphere ( \delta < -32 \degr ) .
Within a 360 deg ^ { 2 } region of sky , we define a sample of 76 ultra–steep spectrum ( USS ) radio sources from the 843 MHz Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey ( SUMSS ) and 1.4 GHz NRAO VLA Sky Survey ( NVSS ) radio surveys with \alpha _ { 843 } ^ { 1400 } < -1.3 and S _ { 1400 } > 15 mJy .
We observed 71 sources without bright optical or near-infrared counterparts at 1.385 GHz with the ATCA , providing \sim 5″ resolution images and sub-arcsec positional accuracy .
To identify their host galaxies , we obtained near-IR K - band images with IRIS2 at the AAT and SofI at the NTT .
We identify 92 % of the USS sources down to K \sim 20.5 .
The SUMSS–NVSS USS sources have a surface density more than 4 times higher than USS sources selected at lower frequencies .
This is due to the higher effective selection frequency , and the well-matched resolutions of both surveys constructed using the same source fitting algorithm .
The scattering of \alpha > -1.3 sources into the USS sample due to spectral index uncertainties can account for only 35 % of the observed USS sources .
Since our sample appears to contain a similar fraction of very distant ( z > 3 ) galaxies , selecting USS sources from SUMSS–NVSS should allow us to identify large numbers of massive galaxies at high redshift .