VIDEO: The students learning the art of shearing
JEANINE KIM, SHEARER: Every day I suppose it is just getting up and seeing new countryside and meeting different people.
ROSS THOMPSON, SHEARING INSTRUCTOR: I was always told it’s the best money you can make in the bush with your hands and that’s true.
CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: It’s shearing time at Cavan Station near Yass in southern New South Wales. There is 20,000 merino ewes to get through with some of the world’s most exclusive fashion houses waiting on their fleeces.
MATTHEW CROZIER, STATION MANAGER, CAVAN STATION: Australian merino wool is the top wool product around the globe. In the textile world it’s a very important product used by many of the top, top fashion labels around the world.
CONOR DUFFY: Inside the shearing sheds, some things look the same as they did when wool was top dog.
What do you like about it?
BRAYDEN CRAM, SHEARER: It’s physical, its hard work and very challenging.
CONOR DUFFY: You get to test yourself?
BRAYDEN CRAM: Yeah, it’s a challenge and you get to see how well you can do.
CONOR DUFFY: But a lot’s changed. Female shearers like Jeanine Kim are writing a new chapter in the wool story.
JEANINE KIM: It is an industry that you have the opportunity to make as much money as your male counterparts when you’re shearing so it’s something that I think that more women should get into.
CONOR DUFFY: Jeanine Kim just set a world record - the first from a woman - shearing 358 merino ewes in eight hours. She hopes another young woman will break it.
JEANINE KIM: I’d like to hope that they’d take up the challenge and like I got a lot out of it personally through the journey. I’d love for other women to be able to take that on and get something similar out of that.
CONOR DUFFY: The biggest challenge in the sheds is finding the next generation of shearers.
MATTHEW CROZIER: There’s guys there earning between 5 and 10 grand a week at the top end of the shearing industry.
CONOR DUFFY: Even farmers with the deepest pockets, like Rupert Murdoch who owns Cavan Station, face a battle to find skilled shearers.
MATTHEW CROZIER: Its extremely difficult and we’ve faced three or four years of real stress - not knowing how we were going to be able to harvest our product and get it to market.
CONOR DUFFY: The quest for new workers to uphold Australia’s shearing tradition requires creative solutions and now industry and education departments have partnered up to bring mobile shearing workshops to schools so the next generation will graduate farm ready.
Eight hundred kilometres north in Inverell, not too far from the Queensland border, about 20 Year 9 and 10 students are starting Shearing 101.
ROSS THOMPSON: We’re going to have some chaos; we want to start with sheep right up in the air with his spine on the floor and then we want to let him roll a bit.
CONOR DUFFY: Working with kids and animals - a lot can go wrong.
ROSS THOMPSON: Get your left hand down there Bree. Pull the skin.
CONOR DUFFY: Do you guys like getting out of the classroom and doing something more fun like this?
MARSHALL WELLS: Yes definitely. Love shearing.
CONOR DUFFY: Marshall Wells and Rex Hamilton are keen for a day out of class.
ROSS THOMPSON: Make an attempt, Marshall, put his leg up. Get behind the sheep.
CONOR DUFFY: They soon learn there’s no slacking off at shearing school.
ROSS THOMPSON: You're a star pupil aren't ya? Were you the one I was saying was office material last year?
MARSHALL WELLS: Um, I don’t know.
ROSS THOMPSON: I think you were. I think you were.
CONOR DUFFY: Ross Thompson, the lead instructor, is a former world champion shearer.
ROSS THOMPSON: I encourage these young guys to have a ten-year plan. Come in, shear hard for 10 years. You should have enough money to have a house paid off in ten years even in these tough times okay. Cost of living and that.
No, no, don’t get too excited.
CONOR DUFFY: As well as instructions on how to use the handpiece that shears the animal, Ross passes on old tricks to keep it under control.
ROSS THOMPSON: It’s a trick that’s been round. I just stole it off other guys. You just put your left toe under that shoulder and that sheep will sit there quite happy, quite content. Pull a bit of wool over their eyes, they’ll often go to sleep.
BELLA THOMPSON, YEAR 12 STUDENT: We lock and load.
CONOR DUFFY: Ross’s daughter Bella recently completed this training, and the Year 12 student is already winning shearing awards.
BELLA THOMPSON: I learned to shear at one of these courses actually. Dad was too stubborn to teach me at home. I was the same as the learners out here, I was struggling at the start.
CONOR DUFFY: Now Bella hopes to set a world record of her own.
BELLA THOMPSON: A lot of the competitions you’ll see a lot of the girls up there winning against the boys. The boys aren’t a big fan of it but I think the girls are giving it a good crack.
CONOR DUFFY: Bella Thompson is part of a new breed challenging taboos about discussing mental health and vulnerability.
BELLA THOMPSON: So yeah, it’s hard work both physically and mentally. You’ll find a lot of shearers and that because they’re away from home so much and away from some of their mates, they feel quite isolated.
ROSS THOMPSON: I’ll get him in position for you, mate.
CONOR DUFFY: After a few days living the shearing life, the students are weighing up whether to head for the sheds after school.
What are your thoughts on the life of a shearer after experiencing a bit of it?
MARSHALL WELLS: Very sore back but it is fun. Pays alright. I’m just not sure if I want to pursue it or not.
BROOKLYN ARNETT, YEAR 10 STUDENT: I love like just looking after them and getting to work with them and making them feel comfortable around me.
CONOR DUFFY: How do you feel after a day’s shearing?
BROOKLYN ARNETT: I get sore but it’s like a good kind of pain, like it feels like I’ve been out, and I’ve done something, like I've accomplished something today.
CONOR DUFFY: With the shearing training now to be extended to other schools, old hands hope a fresh breed of shearers will keep the industry alive.
ROSS THOMPSON: People need to be prepared to let young people have a bit of a go. We’ve got to teach people, we all whinge about the younger generation and all that, but how many people actually do something to help that younger generation.
BELLA THOMPSON: Good job today. You all did really well. Little shearers in the making if you want to be. It's good pay.
Australia famously rode the sheep's back to prosperity but there only 2,000 shearers left in the country. Shearing is now being taught in schools.
National education and parenting reporter Conor Duffy reports.