I liked the photo's of the shearing sheds Derek. I have a photo of my grandfather standing outside of a shearing shed in  Gnarpurt ,Victoria .
So back in 1998 we set out to find it drove around for a few hours came over a crest of a hill and there it was . No mistaking it , It was made of bluestone . There was a man on a quad bike driving around the homestead opposite so we waved him down and showed him the photo and asked if it was all right to go in and my photo taken with my son . He done one better and gave us a tour of the shed and told us a bit of history about it .He went to the same school as my father and remembers the family. It was a great day and this year we will go back and get another photo .This time with both my boys .I'll scan the photos and post them later.  

Great story and I look foward to your follow up. pd

I hope sometime to be able to get into one of the really big shearing shed someday to do some photographs.

I think that we have a fantastic history in Australia that shouldn't be forgotten.


Derek

Backyardcook.
I also agree with PD, these are the stories that form our so often neglected history.

In the early 80's I was "shanghied" into being a shearers cook "just for a couple of weeks".

Well, it happened at the time I was "between wives" so to speak and when after the 2 weeks they gave me a "rating", the money being not too bad, that I happened to get on well with the boss and crew, it was 8 months later I decided to have a spell.
But what a great time I had and good blokes I met (OK, there were a couple of "ordrinaries") but cooking for those sheares bring back wonderful memories.

Well sadly, so many of those shearing sheds are now defunct, falling into disuse and disrepair as wheat and cotton became the new future of the properties down the lower Maquarie and Darling. And look what a mess those rivers are in as a result. And even sadder for me I did not take a camera to record some of those places.

So among my treasures are things from mainly my own past, CI stuff, rabbit/dog traps, tilley lamps, old tools, memorabillia from our farm and many great recollections.

Without people keeping photos, records, old collections, history ceases to exist.

Now where is that new cask of port? Will soon turn that into history.
mikel

Some pics from a recent nostalgic trip back to the old stamping grounds
Kev

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More Soot, Mike, Pd, Furph, Backyardcook, more........


:-/

5 Stand's

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TAR BOY

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To quote Mikel
"Well sadly, so many of those shearing sheds are now defunct, falling into disuse and disrepair as wheat and cotton became the new future"

This one is a Cotton victim, Was the grandparents property one of the best wool growing places around
now devoid of trees and fences.

It was heartbreaking to see what has happened to the place I spent so much of my childhood
Kev

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The Lister

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Where is the Expert now

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Oh, Soot, enlighten an ignorant Canuck, please.  What's a lister?  Somebody tell some tales.......


:-/

Lister is the brand name of the engine in the photo.  We had a Lister in the dairy when I was a kid.

Hi,
Can't agree more fellers.
Having spent a good part of my life in around the Sheds, some the best days of my life, met some wonderful characters and the not so wonderful but in all a very good bunch of men and a good many are firm friends today but sadly all the old ones have pasted. Going through some old color slides a few weeks back I came across some photos, I will see what I can do about getting some on site. I have some black & white photos I will scan some big sheds. The biggest shed I was in 16 stands T board  Signed on for 54,000 grown sheep, the breakdown 16 shearers 1 pen-er up and two good dogs 6 roustabouts 4 wool rollers 3 piece pickers 1 classer assistant 1 wool classer 2 wool pressers 2 cooks 1 cooks assistant 1 hut keeper groom  1 over-sear expert (the boss of the board). But most were 10 to 14 stands but as was said those days are gone. Sadly one can only reflect on times past.

Muzz  

Guys
at least some areas are trying to hold onto some of the past there is a massive shed that is a live display at Jongaryan between Toowoomba and Dalby south Qld that also has all old machinery camp ovens and old school equipement etc covers about 20 acres well worth visiting they have a site

http://www.jondaryanwoolshed.com/

been there a few times and enjoyed
cheers Furphy

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/andytheroofer/shearingshed.jpg

The original photo

http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e301/andytheroofer/shearingshed1998.jpg

Photo taken in 1998

I have a story about a shearers cook .
I always got up early and went to the kitchen and one mornong the cook was peeling a sack of  spuds,   for dinner that night we had boiled potatoes cut in half . The next night we had baked potatoes . The next morning I saw the cook peeling the crispy outside off the baked potatoes, and mashing the up  That  night we were having mashed potatoes , I hapen to mention that I wasn't going to eat the potatoes that night  and the shearers asked why? The cook was sacked and we stopped work and waited about 3 days for another cook to turn up. I was a boardboy.  

I worked in a camp years ago where the cook was called "One spoon Jimmy", as we all shuffled past with our plates he would dish out that nights dinner from several serving trays without ever changing the spoon. By the time the last bloke got served you couldn't tell what was what not that it really mattered I suppose, it certainly wasn't gourmet tucker.

pd

I remember the story of the new lad from England helping the shearers cook.  They had sausages for dinner and the lad had never cooked them before so he asked the old cook how to cook them and he said "just like fish me lad" ........... so he gutted them.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Great pics guys.  That old shed sure has been well preserved.


Derek

[quote author=Derek Bullock link=1194423125/15#18 date=1194481758]
I remember the story of the new lad from England helping the shearers cook.  They had sausages for dinner and the lad had never cooked them before so he asked the old cook how to cook them and he said "just like fish me lad" ........... so he gutted them.  ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

Youv'e been reading Jack & Reg's book again, havn't you. :o :o

Mick.

An overseer walked down the board at smoko and said to a young roustabout the cooks almost out of meat can you kill a sheep? The roustabout said well if I can't I gunner make him awful crook.
That is a true story
Muzz