Click goes the Shears
Last year I had the great pleasure of spending a morning in a shearing shed with six shearers, three rousabouts, a wool classer and a wool presser. In Australia, shearing is an annual event usually occurring in November, and for my virgin experience, I was at my friend's farm near Ruffy, a beautiful, undulating area two hours north of Melbourne.
It was a hot morning and the day started promptly at 730am. Malita, the head rousabout, gave me a quick tour of the shed and a run down of the how the sheep are sheared, what everyone's roles were and also how I could help. So in between taking photos of the various activities, I helped gather the fleece, throw it onto the wool table and then 'skirt' the undesirable edges of the fleece.
A shearing day consists of four 'runs' of two hours each, two 'smoko' breaks of half an hour each and a lunch break of an hour which is taken at midday. The atmosphere in the shearing shed was noisy and frantic with everyone busy completing their tasks- the shearers constantly dragging a sheep out from the catching pen and shearing them, the rousabouts gathering the wool and sweeping the floor, the fleece being quickly skirted, before being graded by the wool classer and then the presser out the back pressing the wool into bails and marking them with the wool grade and farm name. The heat and bustle of the runs, and the constant drone of the six shears clicking, was then contrasted with the downtime of smokos when everyone would sit around together to eat and relax. I was exhausted from just photographing two runs.
We are all familiar with shearing as part of 'Aussie culture' - most of us can sing 'Click goes the shears' or can easily picture the 1890 painting 'Shearing the Rams' by Tom Roberts. However to experience this ubiquitous rural ritual in person, was an endearing experience. Everyone welcomed me and allowed me to take photographs, and I felt very humbled by their hard manual work, swift skills of shearing, and team work and comradery.
