Shearer - Fun Activities - Environments

Environments - SHEARER

Eric the Sheep
Sheep Characters in the Media
Australian Sheep Stations
A Tale of a Shearer's Cook by Elsie Wik: Mindmapping
The Shearer's Cook (1904) - next chapter: Pass it on

Eric the Sheep

Primary

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

(Source: The Mathematics Centre)

1. Eric is at the end of a very long line of sheep, all waiting to be shorn in the hot Australian summer. Because it is so hot,

Eric doesn’t fancy waiting for his turn. So each time the shearer turns her back to shear the sheep at the front of the line Eric, sneaks past two sheep waiting in the line.

If there are fifty [50] sheep in front of Eric, how many will be shorn before Eric reaches the front of the line?

To work this problem out you will need:
§ Fifty [50] counters for sheep
§ One [1] different counter as ‘Eric’
§ Accompanying PowerPoint at the Mathematics Centre

2. Print this problem and see if you get the same answer.

Sheep Characters in the Media

Primary Middle

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Personal and social capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: ICT Capability

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

1. Have a look at the following sheep characters portrayed in the media...

1960s... Lambchop

Lambchop

Derek the Sheep

Shaun the Sheep

2. You are to create a new sheep character but this time your sheep character is to join the world sensation - Bluey and family!

Lambchop was female while Derek and Shaun are males. What will your sheep be?

All the previous characters were white sheep - what colour will your sheep be?

What type of sheep will your character be? A Merino? A Polwarth? A Corriedale? Or...

3. Look at the following video on how to draw a sheep

https://youtu.be/hn4dxylKNJM

Or you might want to draw a cartoon sheep

https://youtu.be/y6Izcm7HC68

4. Write a story about your sheep and Bluey. Have you given your sheep a name yet?

The setting is the Australian outback.

There are to be 3 - 5 characters including the first three mentioned already - Lambchop, Derek and Shaun. You are to introduce each of these three to your new character.

5. Using PowToon, create your story.

Australian Sheep Stations [taken directly from Careers Information Toolkit by MLA & AWI Ltd - PDF]

This activity is also under the Pastoralist [coming soon!]

Primary Middle

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Numeracy

From its beginnings with the small flock of 26 pure-bred Spanish Merinos brought to Australia in 1796, Australia’s wool industry has grown over its 200 year history to have a major
impact on the financial, social and political development of our country. As the world’s largest exporter of greasy wool and with over 100 million sheep, Australia has in past decades
‘ridden on the sheep’s back’.

Listed below is a small selection of the sheep stations that have been prominent in the development of the Australian wool industry.

STATION	NEAREST TOWN	STATE	INTERESTING FACT
Alice Downs	Blackall	Qld	Holds the world record for hand shearing. In October, 1892 Jack Howe shore 321 ewes in 7 hours & 40 minutes with blade shears
Barcaldine Downs	Barcaldine	Qld	Site of confrontation between shearers and the military/police during the shearer’s strikes of 1891 and 1931
Boodarie Station	Port Hedland	WA	Mustered sheep by fire for decades. When the mobs of sheep were found the stockmen would set fire to the Spinifex bush as a signal
Brookong	Lockhart	NSW	Regularly shore seven to ten thousand sheep each day in the 97 stand shearing shed built in 1900
Bungaree	Clare	SA	Home of the South Australian Merino, the tallest and heaviest of the Merinos, bred for arid conditions in the 1860’s
Cranmore Park	Moora	WA	Since its establishment in 1908 scientific innovations were pioneered that were years ahead of their time.
Dagworth Station	Winton	Qld	Place where Banjo Paterson wrote Waltzing Matilda in 1895 based on events occurring in the local district during the Great Shearer’s Strike
Dalkeith	Cassilis	NSW	Jeanine Kimm made world history shearing 358 merino ewes in only 8 hours in May 2024. She took an average of ~80 seconds to shear each ewe. Only 4% of Australian shearers are women.
Dennistoun	Bothwell	Tas	Continued to use blade shears when most other sheds had converted to machines. All shearers in the shed shore with blades for the last time in 1961
Dunlop Station	Bourke	NSW	First shearing shed to have all shearers use machine shears, which were installed in 1888
Egelabra	Warren	NSW	Australia’s oldest closed Merino stud established in 1906. The unique bloodline of the sheep can be traced back to the first Spanish Merinos brought to Australia in 1796.
Gostwyck	Uralla	NSW	Site of one of the largest and oldest surviving shearing sheds in Australia, built in 1851 using a modern design that was decades ahead of its time
Haddon Rig	Warren	NSW	In the 1870’s 345 km of boundary and paddock fences were erected using nearly all the fencing materials in Sydney and Melbourne.
Isis Downs	Blackall	Qld	Shearers at Isis Downs started the Queensland Shearer’s Union in 1886
Liveringa Station	Derby	WA	The shearing sheds were built to withstand cyclones. A team of Liveringa shearers was lost at sea during a cyclone in 1912.
Mundabullangana	Port Hedland	WA	Only employed Aboriginal shearers in the 1880’s who were said to treat the sheep better than white shearers. Over 800 mules and donkeys were used for most of the station work.
Nareeb Nareeb	Hamilton	Vic	Established in 1839 this station has been burnt out and rebuilt several times.
Newstead	Inverell	NSW	Place where Tom Roberts painted his famous sheep shearing painting, ‘The Golden Fleece’
Seven Creeks Run	Euroa	Vic	Famous pioneering sheep run where Mrs W Furlonge established a stud of Saxon Merino sheep in 1835.
Terrick Terrick	Blackall	Qld	One of the most famous merino studs in Queensland, established in 1881. It survived a series of droughts in the late 1800’s and has changed hands several times.
Tinnenburra	Cunnamulla	Qld	James Tyson built Australia’s largest shearing shed on Tinnenburra in 1895. It had 101 stands for 101 shearers
Toorale Station	Bourke	NSW	In July 1887 electric lights where installed in the Toorale shearing shed, the first in Australia.
Uardry	Hay	NSW	One of Australia’s leading merino parent studs, established in 1864. A famous Uardry ram was immortalised on the Australian shilling from 1938 to 1966 and on the 1991 50 cent coin.
Wanganella	Deniliquin	NSW	Home of the Peppin Merino that was specifically bred to suit a wide range of Australian conditions in the 1860’s.
Wellshot Station	Longreach	Qld	The largest sheep station in the world in terms of numbers, with 460,000 sheep in 1892.
Winton	Campbell Town	Tas	The oldest surviving stud in Tasmania, established in 1835. It boasts the purest Saxon Merino flock in the world

1. Use an atlas of Australia to find the location of the sheep stations by finding each of the nearest towns.

2. Draw a timeline for the development of the wool industry by using the dates in the Interesting Facts column.

3. The Australian wool industry is built on the Merino breed of sheep, beginning with a small flock of 26 pure-bred Spanish Merinos brought into the penal colony at Port Jackson in 1796.
Investigate one of the research topics [below] to find out more about the development of the wool industry in Australia

a. Where did the first flock come from?
b. Who were the famous couple that bought the sheep and started breeding them for wool? They had a very interesting history. Find out more about their lives.
c. Why is the Merino prized for its wool?

4. The Australian Merino is not a single breed or strain of sheep. Four main strains are recognised in Australia each selected for specific characteristics:

• Spanish Merino
• Saxon Merino
• Peppin Merino
• South Australian Merino

For each of the four strains of Merino find out:

a. Where did they originally come from?
b. What characteristics do they have?
c. What regions of Australia best suit this strain of Merino?

Goulburn Sheep
The Big Merino in Goulburn
The Big Merino, built in 1985 is a monument to Goulburn and the surrounding district’s fine wool industry. Standing 15.2 meters high, 18 meters long and weighing 97 tones at the time of construction he is an impressive life-like model of Rambo, a stud Ram from a local property, “Bullamallita”.
(Source: Big Merino)

The Big Merino
(Source: Wikipedia)

5. One of the innovations pioneered at Cranmore Park in the 1940’s was the use of a microscope to measure the diameter of wool fibres. Today all wool undergoes a number of tests before it is sold including the measurement of fibre diameter in microns.

A micron is one thousandth of a millimetre. Finer, high quality wools receive higher prices and wool growers breed their sheep to produce wool in a particular micron range.

Four main types of Merinos are now recognised in the Australian flock, classified according to the fineness of their fleece:

• Superfine Wool Merino
• Fine Wool Merino
• Medium Wool Merino
• Strong Wool Merino

For each of the types of Merinos find out:

a. The micron range for the fleece.
b. The average weight of greasy wool produced by each sheep.
c. The ways in which the textile industry uses this type of wool.

6. The Great Shearer’s Strikes of the 1890’s were a turning point for Australia’s politics and industrial relations.

a. What were conditions like for shearers and shed hands before the strikes?
b. Investigate some of the incidents that occurred during the strikes.
c. Who won?
d. What were the long-term consequences for Australian politics and industrial relations?

The Merino Sheep - Livestock Genetics From Spain
https://youtu.be/D6HtYv5sROI?si=ckZxvnrfdRiDjseM

A Tale of a Shearer's Cook by Elsie Wik

Middle

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking
Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Teacher

Local copy: Word

Lesson Length: 2 x 45mins

Process: Students are to read through the article and create a Mind Map.

How to create a Mind Map can be followed here.

Students

1. You are to read Elsie Raggatt/Wik's article (below) about the shearing shed/team, a description of these people and their duties.

Local copy: Word

Here is a sample of Elsie's writing:

A Tale of a Shearer’s Cook
Elsie RAGGATT & Cliff WIK

“Perhaps l had better explain what a shearing team really is. Firstly, you have the board boss or expert. He keeps an eye on things generally, also keeps the shearers‘ combs and cutters in order. Every so many sheep, the cutters are changed and it is the expert's job to sharpen these, or ‘do the grinding. ‘The owner of the sheep brings them to the shed and yards them. From then on, the onus is on the contractor.

Usually, at the big sheds, there is a penner-upper. Sometimes at a smaller shed, 10,000 or so, the expert combines this job with his own. From the big outside yard, the small pens in the shed are filled, each holding say, twenty sheep. There is a pen for each shearer. When the bell goes at 7.30 a.m. the shearers dive into the pens, catch a sheep, a quick twist turns a sheep over and they are dragged out on to the board beneath that particular shearer's machine. It is marvellous how still these sheep lie. Of course, there are exceptions - some persist in kicking all the time. These usually end up pretty sore from the nicks it is impossible not to give them. Mostly, though, they sit as though hypnotized."

2. After you have read this article, keep it downloaded and start to mind map it. Look at the following image to see how to make an excellent mind map.

a. Central image: Shearing Team

b. Branch: Each team member. Colourful, descriptive, icons

c. Extra information off each branch.

How to Mind Map
(Source: Southern Cross School of Distance Education)
Larger version

The Shearer's Cook (1904) - next chapter: Pass it on

Middle

Australian Curriculum General Capability: Critical and creative thinking
Australian Curriculum General Capability: Literacy

Cooperative Learning Activity

Teacher

This activity involves the strategy 'Pass it on'. Look at this page to see the concept and process.

1. Form groups of 5 students - this is the team.

2. Read the following Poem The Shearer's Cook (1904) - in The Gundagai Independent, January 23 1904.

Australian Shearers' cooks frequently bore the butt of the fictions conjured up by song composers. In this case mention of Mrs Beaton's 1861 Cook Book provides a nice touch.

The Shearers' Cook (1904) Read

"Anyone to take a look at him wouldn't fancy he could cook-
He said he'd got his knowledge all from Mrs Beeton's book,
At fricasse and mayonnaise, or at making a ragout,
Perhaps there were some could beat him but they were mighty few,
"Some people like plain tucker; give me fancy things instead,"
Said the man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed.

So he gave them Hash-ma-gan-da and Tumbarumba stew,
And Kiandra Rock-ma-dolla were all in his menu
Boiled chops he'd have for breakfast, and to make it extra nice,
He'd sometimes give them curry and always burn the rice !
So he bungled on serenely, no matter what they said,
Did the man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed.

He was good at making rock cakes, and at dough boys rather neat,
At times he'd make some fancy things to give the lads a treat.
"I'll show these chaps that I can cook, no matter what they say-
I've cooked for lots of squatters up Gundagai way,
I'll give them apple fritters, caviare and gingerbread,"
Said the man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed.

He gave them fried maizenn and stuff called Hang-dog-pie-
Every man that ate a bit of it made sure that he was going to die;
And his "Whoa-back" soup at supper had a most peculiar smell-
In it they found to make it strong he'd put a bullock bell !
Then the rousies asked for brownie, and the shearers asked for bread,
From the man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed.

Then they look him outside gently and dumped him on his head-
The man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed-
And all were quite unanimous in hoping he was dead,
The man who came from Tumut who was cooking at the shed."

3. You are to write a story about what happened next to their character or a new story. As a group, decide whether to create a new story or what happens next to their character "The Shearer's Cook.

4. The writing will occur in 5 x 5 minute intervals.

In the first 5 minutes, all students will be given time to write an introduction, when the 5 minutes are up the students will fold their paper so only the last sentence of their story is visible. They then pass their story to the person next to them (in their group).

In the following 5 minutes, all students will write a rising action.

When the 5 minutes are up, the students will fold their paper so only the last sentence of their story is visible. They will then pass their story to the person next to them (in their group).

5. The process will be repeated until each student has completed their story, complete with