The Shearers: the story of Australia, told from the woolsheds

Evan McHugh spins a great series of yarns in his latest book, The Shearers: the story of Australia, told from the woolsheds.

IN HIS latest book, The Shearers: the story of Australia, told from the woolsheds, Evan McHugh has spun together a great series of yarns about the shearing industry going back to its beginnings in 1788.

The Shearers captures Australia’s original story of boom and bust. Stemming from our convict history, the shearer was born when free labour dried up.

It is said a “gun” shearer will expel the same amount of energy per day as a cyclist in the Tour de France, which sums up the toughness of this profession and the impressive ability of the shearers to perform the job day in, day out.

McHugh tells how the Merino lines of sheep brought prosperity to the harsh Australian environment, how turbulent events have long been part of the relationship between shearers and the sheep owners who employ them and how the Australian Labor Party was born in the country’s woolsheds during the bitter strikes of the 1890s.

McHugh also covers modern day challenges such as attempts at robotic and chemical shearing.

Most importantly, he sheds light on how arguably the toughest profession in the world has given so much to the bush and the people of Australia.

Without the characters typified by Tom Roberts’ iconic painting, Shearing of the rams, and Banjo Patterson’s famous poem, Waltzing Matilda, written on a famous Queensland sheep station, Australia would not be what it is today.

The book also offers a glossary of terms, a list of the Shearing Hall of Fame members and shearing records.

The Shearers is a well woven book that captures an important part of Australia’s identity — its land and prosperity that has been often described as having been established off the sheep’s back.

And, let us not forget the “aching, creaking spines of Australian shearers” making this possible.