Over the last fortnight, the historic shearing shed at Coolringdon, west of Cooma, has played host to a shearing school sponsored by AWI, and brought together under Mick’s guidance by trainers Ian Elkins from Canberra, Sean Wilson from Young and Emma Lenon from Captain’s Flat.

The school has worked to acquaint novices with a variety of procedures including shearing and wool handling and to up-skill current shearers who just need to brush up on new techniques.

For Emma Lenon, the course is a great opportunity to help newcomers to the woolshed ease their way into the variety of jobs that need to be done. 

“I’ve always loved working in the woolshed but when I started out 15 or so years ago, there was nothing like this and trial and error was the only way to go,” she said.

“Now, we can prepare young people for the experience from day one which is not only a much more efficient use of the work force, but means they are confident and know the importance of team work.

“The wool handling job is so much more complex now too, because the skirtings and scraps that used to be tossed aside a decade or so ago, are all sorted and collected now. The handlers need to know how to sort into at least four or five different directions.”

One candidate at Coolringdon was Markus Brauer a backpacker from Cologne in Germany. Currently working on a property at Hillston in the Central West, shearing is a considerable departure from his job as an IT engineer in his homeland.

“I’ve been working at Hillston for some months now and when I heard about this course, thought it would be a great chance to learn some very different skills. My employer was happy enough for me to come and it’s been really interesting and challenging. I never imagined back in Germany that I’d end up learning to shear sheep in country Australia, but there you go. I’ve done it,” he said.

Anyone interested in finding out about the next shearing workshops could contact Mick Schofield on 0429 779 002.