Day in the life of a shearer at Aroona, Canowie Belt.
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00:00 The first industry for a day in their life was shearing at a Roonah Kanawi belt.
00:04 When the shearing team arrive at 7am, they begin setting up their stands with combs,
00:09 cutters and hand pieces, before oiling the shearing plants and having a stretch.
00:14 Shearing is a physical job where shearers will catch a sheep in the catching pen, before
00:18 positioning it on its behind in a safe and easy way to handle before bringing it out
00:24 onto what they call the board.
00:26 Once positioned adequately between the shearers legs, they pull the shearing plant cord and
00:31 begin shearing the wool from the belly and gradually make their way across the rest of
00:35 the sheep.
00:36 A rouse about is always on hand ready to move the fleece through the shed.
00:40 Here you will see John O'Meara, the rouse about in this video, grabbing the belly piece
00:45 from off the sheep and then sorting it and taking it to its appropriate spot.
00:50 Jamestown shearer Ben Rolke has about 4 and a half years experience with a 5 year break
00:55 in the middle of that and has done a bout of shearer training through the Shearer and
00:59 Wool Handling Training School.
01:01 Ben has competed in shearing competitions and can shear a sheep in a commercial run
01:07 such as this in about 3 minutes.
01:09 [music]
01:17 [music]
01:22 [music]
01:27 [music]
01:32 [music]
01:37 [music]
01:42 [music]
01:47 [music]
01:51 As the fleece is being shorn off the rouse about will manoeuvre the fleece into a position
01:56 to grab it efficiently to toss onto the skirting table.
01:59 Once the final blow is complete the shearer sends the sheep out to shoot.
02:04 As the shearer nears completion the rouse about is gathering the fleece ready to throw
02:09 it on the table.
02:10 [music]
02:15 [music]
02:22 [music]
02:29 Now that the fleece is on the table the rouse about will start skirting and sorting removing
02:34 any stain.
02:35 Meanwhile the farmer or wool classer in the shed will come along and class the wool to
02:41 know which area the fleece should go to in the shed.
02:45 [music]
03:02 Now the fleece is rolled into somewhat of a ball to be able to go into the wool press.
03:07 [music]
03:11 My name is Ben Rolfe I'm a shearer from Jamestown.
03:14 My best tally is 215 and yeah the best part about the job is keeping physically active,
03:22 working with good people.
03:23 My preference is always a good comb and merino.
03:26 Yeah a bit easier to hang on to.
03:28 This is repeated across four stands in this particular shed and the shearers will shear
03:34 continuous for two hours with a half an hour smoco at 9.30 and then a hours lunch break
03:43 at midday and another smoco two hours after their hour lunch break from 3 o'clock till
03:48 3.30 and then they'll shear right through till 5.30.
03:52 So it is a full on day and they get a lot of physical exercise.
03:56 [music]
04:08 It's all hands on deck in this shearing shed with the owner, his sons and also his father
04:14 all helping out in the shearing shed and you can see that they're skirting and sorting
04:19 in this clip and there were 6,000 sheep to get through which took 11 days.
04:24 And was a hive of teamwork.
04:26 That completed Aruna's shearing.
04:28 cheering.
04:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]