Part 1 (1/2)

Shearing in the Riverina, New South Wales

by Rolf Boldrewood

”Shearing commences to-h Gordon, the er of Anabanco station, in the district of Riverina, in the colony of New South Wales, one Monday ust The utterance had its importance to everythe industrial drama about to be performed

A low sand-hill a few years since had looked out over a sea of grey plains, covered partly with grass, partly with salsiferous bushes and herbs Two or three huts built of the trunks of the pine and roofed with the bark of the box-tree, and a skeleton-looking cattle-yard with its high ”gallows” (a rude tihtered cattle) alone broke the monotony of the plain-ocean A comparatively small herd of cattle, 2000 or 3000, foundthe short winter and spring, but were always corate to mountain pastures when the swamps, which alone in those days formed the water-stores of the run, were dried up But two or three, or at most half-a-dozen, stock the herd, so inadequate in nu country

But, a little later, one of the great chiefs of the wool-producing interest--a shepherd-king, so to speak, of shrewdness, energy, and capital--had seen, approved and purchased the lease of this waste kingdoangs of navvies appeared, wending their way across the silent plain Da ere dropped on the sand by the long line of tea

Sheep by thousands, and tens of thousands, began to co up to the lonely sandhill--noarineers, fencers, shepherds, bullock-drivers--till the place looked like a fair on the borders of Tartary

Meanwhile everything was n of law” The see all the necessary work at once, rather than by instalments

One hundred men for one day rather than one an to demonstrate themselves In twelveup their far-fetched priceless water, the wire fences erected, the shepherds gone, and 17,000 sheep cropping the herbage of Anabanco Tuesday was the day fixed for the actual commencement of the ira, so to speak, as the time of most station events is calculated with reference to it, as happening before or after shearing

But before the first shot is fired which tells of the battle begun, what raids and skir and vedette duty must take place!

First arrives the cook-in-chief to the shearers, with two assistants to lay in a few provisions for the week's consumption of 70 able-bodied -shed is a highly paid and tolerably irresponsible official He is paid and provided by the shearers Payed on the scale of half-a-crown a head weekly from each shearer For this su out of his own pocket as many ”marmitons” as may be needful for that end, and to satisfy his tolerably exacting and fastidious employers

In the present case he confers with the storekeeper, Mr de Vere, a young gentle an excellent practical knowledge of the working of a large station and to this end has the store-keeping depart

He does not perhaps look quite fit for a croquet party as he stands noith a flour-scoop in one hand and a pound of tobacco in the other But he looks like a entleman, as he is ”Jack the Cook” thus addresses hi to be any hus! The ry as free selectors They've been a-payin' for their rations for ever so long, and of course now shearing's on, they're good for a little extra!”

”All right, Jack,” returns de Vere, good-tehed out and sent away before breakfast You must have missed the cart Here's the list I'll read it out to you: three bags flour, half a bullock, two bags sugar, a chest of tea, four dozen of pickles, four dozen of ja of salt, plates, knives, forks, ovens, frying-pans, saucepans, iron pots, and about a hundred other things Now, s safe, or PAY FOR THEM--that's the order! You don't want anything iment of cavalry, I should think”

”Well, I don't know There won't be ood,”too stupendous to be acco As I'm here I'll take a few dozen boxes of sardines, and a case of pickled salot the pluht of each, Mr de Vere!

They'll be crying out for plu the life out of me, if I haven't a few trifles like It's a hard life, surely, a shearers' cook Well, good-bye, sir, you have 'eine that the role of Mr Gordon at Anabanco was a reign of luxury and that waste which tendeth to penury, let him be aware that all shearers in Riverina are paid at a certain rate, usually that of ONE pound per hundred sheep shorn They agree, on the other hand, to pay for all supplies consureened Hence, it is entirely their own affair whether their ant or econoe of the station store PATES DE FOIE GRAS, ortolans, roast ostrich, novels, top-boots, double-barrelled guns, IF THEY LIKE TO PAY FOR THEM--with one exception No wine, no spirits! Neither are they perrounds” for their private use Grog at shearing? Matches in a powder-lo-Saxon industrial or defensive champion cannot be trusted with the fire-water Navvies, men-of-war's h the younger ht only drink in moderation, the majority and the older men are utterly without self-control once in the front of te hands, delay and bad shearing, would be the inevitable results of spirits A LA DISCRETION So much is this a matter of certainty froned, in ing spirits on to the station during shearing, LOSES THE WHOLE OF the money earned by him” The men know that the restriction is for their benefit, as well as for the interest of the ive a glance at the s-men assembled at Anabanco--one out of hundreds of stations in the colony of New South Wales, ranging from 100,000 sheep doards There are seventy shearers; about fifty washers, including the ine, boilers, bricklayers and the like; ten or twelve boundary-riders, whose duty it is to ride round the large paddocks, seeing that the fences are all intact, and keeping a general look-out over the condition of the sheep; three or four overseers; half-a-dozen young gentle, or, as it is generally phrased, ”colonial experience”--a coh; a score or two of tea for the high-piled wool bales, which are loaded up and sent away almost as soon as shorn; wool-sorters, pickers-up, pressers, yardsathered from this outline what an 'army with banners' is arrayed at Anabanco While statistically inclined, italone (less the hly), 400 pounds, exclusive of provisions consue of wool 1500 pounds Other hands from 30 pounds to 40 pounds per week All of which disburseht to twelve weeks after the shears are in the first sheep

Tuesday coes the far skyline, the shearers are taking a slight refection of coffee and currant buns to enable theht o'clock, when the serious breakfast occurs

Shearers always diet theer they estion, as preliminary to muscular developh a tremendous amount of work The whole frame is at its utmost tension, early and late But the preservation of health is due to their natural strength of constitution rather than to their profuse and unscientific diet Half-an-hour after sunrise Mr Gordon walks quietly into the vast building which contains the sheep and their shearers--called ”the shed,” par excellence Everything is in perfect cleanliness and order--the floor swept and smooth, with its carefully planed boards of pale yellow aromatic pine Small tramways, with baskets for the fleeces, run the wool up to the wool tables, superseding theAt each side of the shed floor are certain s found by experience to be sufficient for the postures and gy of a sheep Opposite to each square is an aperture, co narrow paled yard, outside of the shed

Through this each man pops his sheep when shorn, where he remains in company with the others shorn by the sa done by the overseer or er supplies a check upon hasty or unskilful work The body of the woolshed, floored with battens placed half an inch apart, is filled with the woolly victims This enclosure is subdivided into minor pens, of which each fronts the place of two shearers, who catch from it until the pen is empty When this takes place, a es, an equitable distribution of places for shearing has to be made by lot

On every subdivision stands a shearer, as Mr Gordon walks, with an air of cal aisle Seventy -land, Ireland, and Scotland are represented in the proportion of one half of the number; the other half is co these last--of pure Anglo-Saxon or Anglo-Celtic descent--are to be seen some of the finestTaller than their British-born brethren, with softer voices and ular features, they inherit the powerful fra lives chiefly devoted to agricultural labour, they enjoy larger intervals of leisure than is per classes of Europe The climate is mild, and favourable to health They have been accustomed from childhood to abundance of the best food; opportunities of intercolonial travel are frequent and colo-Australian labourer without, on the one hand, the sharpened eagerness which marks his Transatlantic cousin, has yet an air of independence and intelligence, corace of movement, unknown to the peasantry of Britain

An idea is prevalent that the Australians are, as a race, physically inferior to the British It is asserted that they grow too fast, tend to height and slenderness, and do not possess adequate stamina and muscle The idea is erroneous Thesedentary lives in shops, banks, or counting-houses, are doubtless ht of form So are they who live under such conditions all over the world But those youngsters who have followed the plough on the upland farms, or lived a wilder life on the stations of the far interior, who have had their fill of wheaten bread and beefsteaks since they could walk, and snuffed up the free bush breezes from infancy, they are MEN--

Stout of heart and ready of hand, As e'er drove prey from cumberland;

--a business, I uished themselves

Take Abraham Lawson as he stands there in a natural and unstudied attitude, 6 feet 4 inches in his stockings, wide-chested, stalwart, with a face like that of a Greek statue Take Billy May, fair-haired, uid, till you see hiain, Jack Windsor, handso natural inclination for the coht, or a trifle over, with the gloves or without

It is curious to note how the old English practice of settling disputes with nature's weapons has taken root in Australia It would 'gladden the sullen souls' of the defunct gladiators to watch two lads, whose fathers had never trodden England's soil, pull off their jackets and go to work ”hae silence of the true island type