The Australian woolshed is unique. It has an atmosphere and character like no other building and comes to life just once a year during the shearing season.
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A few months ago, I was given an opportunity to photograph a 100 year old shearing shed in operation. The property of Bough Yard at Jerrawa was first settled in 1889 by the pioneering George Bush and has remained in the family ever since. The shed was built in 1920 and replaced an earlier version that had a bark roof. The owners are Peter and Margaret Bush and they are getting the shed ready for shearing time.
Peter shows me around the century old building and points out the early bush carpentry that went into its construction. A combination of galvanized iron and weatherboard clad a framework of logs and split timber railings. It was in this very shed that Peter "trod the boards" for the first time at the age of 15 in the mid-1950s. His career as a shearer spanned almost 50 years and took him on a memorable journey around Australia. These days however Peter is the grazier and he watches the shearing. The light in the shed is very soft and makes the colours appear deeper. Its interior timbers are worn and burnished a deep reddish brown from 100 years and tens of thousands of sheep rubbing their greasy wool against its walls. Over the next several days, around 900 sheep will be shorn at the Bough Yard shed. There are two shearing stands, but only one will be in use.
The shearer is William Heat from Jerrawa. No one works harder than the shearer. As William peels fleece after fleece from the struggling sheep his father Harold collects the wool and then throws it high in the air where it hangs like a wooly cloud before gently landing on the sorting table in one complete piece. William then walks the two paces to the holding pen and selects another sheep. In the meantime, the roustabout Caterina from Queanbeyan quickly sweeps the shearing boards clean and the process starts again.
On the sorting table, the fleece is "skirted" and classed by Greg, the wool classer from Yass. It's Greg who decides the value of the wool and places it into its appropriate stall. As the stalls fill, he and Caterina begin the baling process. Soon a plump bale appears and Greg gives it his stamp of approval by branding it using a variety of old Bough Yard stencils.
Just two steps down from the shearing room floor is the kitchen and lunchroom where Margaret is busy preparing the smokos and lunches for the workers. Margaret has kept a meticulous record of the history of Bough Yard and shows me a wonderful collection of hand cut metal stencils that date back to when the property was first settled 130 years ago. They are worn, battered, and thickly coated with layers of paint. They are like little works of art and are still in use today.
All too soon, the shearing is over and the shed is "cut out". Once again, the old Bough Yard shed rests silently for another year until it takes on a new lease of life next season. This was the first time I had ever experienced shearing up close. My thanks to everyone in the shed.