Life on the land: Kyneton shearer’s lifelong passion for sheep

Meet Greg Muir, a shearer and sheep farmer with a lifelong passion for his livestock.

Greg Muir, of Lauriston, has spent his life in the shearing sheds and running his own sheep. Picture: Zoe Phillips

When it comes to sheep, you either love them or hate them.

So says shearer and sheep farmer, Greg Muir. And for the record, he adores them.

It’s a passion that spans a lifetime, from working with sheep as a teenager, to travelling the world as a shearer, before returning to his hometown of Lauriston, near Kyneton in central Victoria, to rear Merinos and crossbred sheep.

Greg, 69, looks back on a lifetime on the land — but this is not the first time he has shared his story with The Weekly Times.

As a 14-year-old in 1966, Greg’s photo graced the front cover of the newspaper.

“Those pictures were taken down at Kyneton, just down the road from here,” Greg said.

“We were just kids, who had a few sheep. In the picture, officially we were crutching sheep.

“We basically ran a few sheep as kids.

“I’m pretty used to being out the back, so I was a bit embarrassed.”

Greg was on the front page of The Weekly Times when he was a boy, photographed by his uncle. Greg is still shearing sheep all these years on. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Greg’s connection to the newspaper runs deeper than just starring on the cover as a teenager. His uncle, Alf Ferguson, used to shoot photographs forThe Weekly Times. Greg said he was a keen aerial photographer, often hanging out the side of a Tiger Moth plane to shoot his images and once got frostbite from hanging out of the aeroplane for so long.

Sheep have been the name of the game for Greg all his life.

For the past 25 years, Greg has farmed his own sheep, running Merinos, “and also crossbreds”.

“I run the Merino for the wool and also crossbreed for fat lambs,” Greg said.

“I had sheep as a kid, then I went away shearing. I’ve shorn in America, up in Queensland, even on Flinders Island.

“I was moving around all the time.

“You’d go away, sometimes for three months, especially in the middle of winter here when you can’t shear.”

Greg said the industry does look different these days. But that’s not a bad thing.

“It’s like anything, it’s progressed,” Greg said.

“Now, the sheep are bigger than they’ve ever been. And shearing has changed a lot.

“When I was young, in the shearing industry if a lady came into the shearing shed you would say “ducks on the pond”, which meant no swearing.

“Nowadays, there are more girls in the industry than boys. And they’re brilliant.

“The best roustabouts are girls.”

Speaking to The Weekly Times, Greg takes the call while standing in the paddock, watching over his ewes which have recently lambed.

The wind whistles through the telephone, as Greg battles the elements of a cold Kyneton winter.

He says it’s been a particularly cold winter this year.

But dealing with the seasons — both drought and floods — is all part of the game if you’re a farmer, Greg says.

“You either like farming or you don’t,” Greg says.

“And I’ve always liked sheep. “It’s a very simple passion. There’s not much to it really.

“I don’t mind looking after sheep.

“I’ve always had that bond.”

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