In this study we define a new sample of distant powerful radio galaxies in order to study their host galaxy properties and provide targets for future observations of HI absorption with new radio telescopes and to understand the fuelling and feedback from such sources. We have cross-matched the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) radio catalogue at 843MHz with the VISTA Hemisphere Survey (VHS) near-infrared catalogue using the likelihood ratio technique. Photometric redshifts from the Dark Energy Survey are then used to assign redshifts to the radio source counterparts. We found a total of 249 radio sources with photometric redshifts over a 148deg^2^ region. By fitting the optical and near-infrared photometry with spectral synthesis models we determine the stellar mass and star formation rates of the radio sources, finding typical stellar masses of 10^11^-10^12^M_{sun}_ for the powerful high-redshift radio galaxies. We also find a population of low-mass blue galaxies. However, by comparing the derived star formation rates to the radio luminosity, we suggest that these sources are false positives in our likelihood ratio analysis. Follow-up, higher resolution (~<5arcsec) radio imaging would help alleviate these mid-identifications, as the limiting factor in our cross-identifications is the low resolution (~45arcsec) of the SUMSS radio imaging.

Cone search capability for table J/MNRAS/489/3403/table1 (The radio galaxy overlapping SUMSS+VHS+DES defined in this paper)