Tag / Shearing

by brandsa2018

Jamestown’s one-armed shearer defying the odds

Josh Talbot may shear sheep with only one arm, but he gets the job done with twice the determination of most.

Learning to shear again at industry speeds with one arm isn’t the first time the 27-year-old has defied the odds and proved doubters wrong.

At the age of 16 Josh was driving when he misjudged a corner and his car rolled into a tree, the force of the crash throwing his body out of the car.

He died twice on the scene and again on the way to hospital. His mother Roslyn, an ambulance officer, was the one called to the scene.

“She reckons she had a feeling when they were driving out, like something was wrong, and as soon as they pulled up she saw the car and she knew. She did what she had to do,” Josh says. “They reckon every bone in my chest got broken.”

Josh Talbot, 27, defied the odds when he learnt to shear with one arm after surviving a horrific car accident at the age of 16.

Enduring horrific injuries, Josh spent two weeks at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in a coma and eventually woke up to find his right arm had been amputated from the shoulder.

The first thing that came to mind was the threat to his shearing career, something he had pursued from the age of 13.

But while Josh was still recovering in hospital, his brother-in-law – also a shearer – went to the sheds and tried shearing a sheep with one arm tied behind his back to test how difficult it could be.

Two weekends after being released from hospital, Josh was back in the shed and giving shearing with one arm a crack.

“I wasn’t supposed to, I was still bandaged up, but I went out and shore my first sheep. There were a few laughs, but you can always learn something new.”

Now 11 years on from the accident, Josh shears between 80-90 sheep a day, dragging the sheep into position with one arm and holding it between his legs.

He says although he eventually learnt to shear “the same as everyone else” he faced doubt by some farmers who thought he would be unable to keep up to speed with one arm.

“Nobody would give me a go at their shed for a long time until I got my name out there that I could do it,” Josh says. “I’ve always had a bit of an attitude like ‘check me out, see what I can do’. If you want to do something just do it, have a go. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, get up and have another go.”

“The few people that did see me do it were mind-blown. It wasn’t until the first Jamestown Show after my accident when I sheared a few sheep for demonstrations to raise money for breast cancer, and so many people turned up to see it.”

Josh Talbot says once shearing gets in your blood, it’s hard to walk away from. Photo: Josh Talbot Facebook.

Now Josh shears around several areas in regional SA, and also participates in a number of speed shears and demonstrations at country shows and events. In March he took part in the Blades of Glencoe Shearathon in the South East that raised money for support service Beyond Blue. Josh is also fond of using blade shears, a traditional technique using hand-operated scissors.

“I haven’t done a lot of blade shearing, there’s not a lot of places in Australia that do it with blades anymore,” he says. “But when we go to a shed I’ll ask the farmer if I’m allowed to do it with the blades because it leaves a little bit more wool on and doesn’t get down to the skin like a hand piece does.”

Josh has shared videos of himself shearing with one arm on Facebook, attracting international media attention and praise from social media users stunned by his determination and speed.

But he admits that some of his videos have also attracted negative comments by some social media users concerned for the animals’ welfare.

“I got a lot of negative stuff, from people who don’t know really know the industry,” he says. “They reckon I was too rough, but you can be the best shearer in the world and still nick the sheep.

“The way I shear, I have to do a lot more with my legs, but none of my weight is on the sheep. When they’re not kicking, that’s when a sheep is comfy.”

Josh describes shearing as not a job, but a lifestyle and says it’s something he could never give up.

“It gets in your blood and once you’ve got the bug it’s hard to walk away from,” he says. “The people you meet along the way, you have a laugh and such a great time. Once you’ve met someone in a shearing shed you are friends for life.”

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by brandsa2018

Streaky Bay’s Courela Clothing keeping shearers happy for 30 years

Enter a shearing shed anywhere on the Eyre Peninsula and it’s likely you’ll spot the Courela Clothing logo slapped on a shearer’s trousers.

The Streaky Bay business has been a shearer’s brand of choice for 30 years, with customers in the US, UK, Europe, New Zealand and Israel donning the South Australian-made gear.

Courela Clothing has come a long way from its beginnings in the 1980s in Kerry and Noel Johnson’s lounge room.

Kerry began making shearing clothes from home for her husband Noel – a former shearer also known as ‘Grub’ – while their young children were at school.

Word soon spread throughout shearing sheds about the comfortable and hard-wearing pants, made from breathable, stretchier ‘shearer’s denim’.

Kerry Johnson of Courela Clothing. Photo courtesy of the West Coast Sentinel.

“We would drive miles and miles to sell gear at regional shops and rural areas,” Kerry says.

“There wasn’t a lot around because there was no internet then. Thirty years ago you couldn’t just Google things, you had to use the Yellow Pages.”

The Courela Clothing line consists of three key pieces – shearing trousers, singlets and jumpers.

Made from a stretch denim cloth, the trousers are high-waisted and can withstand greater wear and tear compared to typical denim jeans.

“They are long-lasting and the fabric doesn’t catch prickles which can be in the sheep’s wool and perforate through normal fabric,” Kerry says.

“Shearers often pick up a sheep with their hands and the sheep rests on their legs as it is shorn, so there is abrasion on the inner legs all day.”

Kerry says the designs have evolved over the years, with Noel and her son often giving feedback on the clothing after being out on the job.

“They’d come back and say the fabric wears out here, and this needs to be fixed,” she says.

With the word about Courela – which is also the name of their family farm – having spread throughout the Eyre Peninsula, it soon became a well-known shearing clothing brand across Australia and overseas.

“Shearers travel overseas a lot, and that’s how the word spreads,” Kerry says.

“We have a local man here who has travelled every year to Italy for the last 25 years to shear.”

Kerry estimates that Courela Clothing has sold “thousands” of items over the past three decades.

A team of five staff work from the Courela workshop at the Johnson’s Streaky Bay property.

Noel also sells and repairs shearing tools and equipment.

While the rural town isn’t as renowned for shearing as SA’s Limestone Coast, Kerry says it’s still home to many mixed farms.

She is one of four daughters who all were taught how to sew by their mother from a young age.

Aside from handling a sewing machine, they also know how to work the shears.

“I wasn’t a prissy little girl, my dad taught me how to shear when I was about 12,” Kerry says.

“Shearers are a very diverse bunch, but they’re generous and really down-to-earth, hard-working blokes.

“It’s predominantly a man’s world, although not as much these days as there are many women shearers.”

The improving gender balance in the shearing industry was made evident this week when TAFE SA announced that a 25-year-old woman had become the state’s first female to complete a Certificate III in Shearing.

Kerry says one of Courela Clothing’s biggest achievements was its ability to survive in the manufacturing world.

“Our biggest achievement has simply been surviving as a small business, that to me has been the biggest challenge,” she says.

“It’s hard work, and we strive to keep our quality.

“Supporting small local businesses is so important because it means jobs for our towns.

“Plus, people know they’re getting something that is Australian-made.”

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by brandsa2018

Girl power takes over Naracoorte shearing sheds

By Melissa Keogh

Down in the Limestone Coast town of Naracoorte, women are picking up the shears.

This is despite shearing sheds being men’s territory, particularly during the golden years of the Australian wool industry.

Last year TAFE SA held the world’s first all-female shearing workshop in Naracoorte, which led to many of the 18 participants finding work.

The inaugural workshop was instructed by three of the industry’s best female shearers, including women’s world lamb shearing record holder and New Zealander, Kerry Jo Tehuia.

Another all-female shearing workshop was planned for 2017, although it was cancelled due to wet weather.

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TAFE SA student Chloe Swiggs, left, with trainer Te Atakura at the all-female shearing workshop in Naracoorte.

According to TAFE SA’s Shearing and Wool Handler Training Program lecturer, Glenn Haynes, South Australian women are doing a solid job at taking on the blokes.

“There’s been a lot of young girls who want to have a go and we want to help these girls get into the industry.

“It’s more to do with giving them confidence and also open the eyes of the employers, especially the older guys who may have thought women couldn’t do it and therefore knocked them back.

“It’s about changing people’s opinions.”

According to the Bureau of Statistics, the number of female shearers in Australia has almost doubled in the past decade to about 1260.

In past decades women only stepped foot in shearing sheds as wool classers (sorting the fleece), shed hands or morning tea deliverers.

TAFE SA student Kimberley Allison.

TAFE SA student Kimberley Allison.

Glenn says TAFE SA’s ongoing standard shearing course is experiencing high demand.

Offered to both men and women, shearing courses are offered statewide and teach participants clip preparation, wool handling, wool classing, fitness and nutrition tips, as shearing is a physically demanding task.

“It teaches them how to do it properly so they don’t cut the animal or themselves,” says Glenn.

“There’s been a really big demand for the courses in the last couple of years, 99% of the classes are full and we have about 15 kids who are on waiting lists.”

Chloe Swiggs, 25, travelled from Hamilton, Victoria, to undertake the TAFE SA course and workshop.

By the end of the course she was fleecing about 120 sheep a day and has now found full time employment as a shearer across SA, Victoria and NSW.

“My dad was a shearer and my mum was a wool classer,” Chloe says.

“I wanted a different perspective from everyone else – I wanted to do everything.

“But it took me a while because it’s such a hard job, physically and mentally, it’s very demanding.

“I definitely think that there should be more girls because we need to show that we can do it just as well as the men can.”

The end result is beautifully shorn sheep.

The end result is beautifully shorn sheep.

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