After our campsite breakfast we go in search of Brownie and Beck and visit some neighbouring farms before we find the right place with the sheep shearing shed.
The sheep look very worried as they wait all bunched tightly in the pens but they are very quiet and passive. Brownie is there with another fellow and they are both going at it grabbing each sheep by the legs and dragging it in between their legs so they can hold them while they shear. Each sheep struggles at first when grabbed but then sits passively between the shearer’s legs until it’s over. (2-3 minutes each and very hard work). Brownie tells me that he does about 180 sheep a day at $2.80/sheep. (There are 2800 sheep on the farm). Beck and two other roustabouts are sweeping the wool and then sorting it into wool for carpets and the better wool for clothing. It’s pressed into bales for sale and transport. Brownie and Beck will move onto the Australian West Coast to farm oysters for three months after this stint at sheep shearing. Brownie is a tough looking guy but he has more scars than a rugby team and seems to have chosen a hard living.
We say goodbye to Brownie and Beck and head on toward Port Fairy where we stop in this quaint old town for a great Devonshire Cream Tea. We take a walk around the headland for a couple of hours and then head inland for our night’s stay at Mt Gambier.
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