During the past 64 years he has worked as a rouseabout, wool presser, shearer, shearing contractor and now wool classer.

Mr Stephens has lived in Boorowa for the past 53 years but learnt his trade in his home town of Warren in western NSW, starting out as a rouseabout aged 15.

He was at the Warrren Show when a local woolgrower, Bob Noonan, who at the time owned “Wirrilahlee” out on the Bullagreen, north of the town, asked him if he could do some rouseabouting.

He said yes but had had no experience in shearing sheds. The shearers taught him how to throw fleeces and pen up, he survived the job and so began his long love affair with the shearing industry.

“I would do it all over again if I had the chance,” he said.

The Stephenses are one of the best known families around Warren with a reputation for hard work and skill with horses.

At the time Mr Stephens was trying to break into the industry, Warren was bristling with top-notch shearers and shed workers and he found it hard to get work.

He even went to Tasmania to upgrade his shearing skills.

But slowly he got more and more work and spent years working in the back country (including Louth) from January to Easter before returning to shear around Warren and then heading east to work around towns such as Orange, Cooma and Boorowa.

He eventually settled in Boorowa where he married Trishie and together they reared their two children, Darren and Lana.

His son also took up shearing but now owns a farm between Boorowa and Yass. Lana now lives in Queensland.  

“Darren was the best shearer I ever saw. He is the first person I saw shear 400 sheep in a day,” he said.

Mr Stephens shore for 28 years before switching to shearing contracting, first as an area manager with Dubbo-based shearing contractor, Grazcos, before going out on his own.

He says shearing has changed during his life with shearers now working all hours including weekends.

Mr Stephens is opposed to the dilution of the strict working hours in sheds which applied when he started out in the industry    

“I never worked a weekend in my life. Weekends are a time when parents should be spending time with their families,” he said. 

Sheep have also changed over time, he said.

Some are getting so big that shearers are struggling to handle them but at least they have much less body wrinkle and much straighter necks, Mr Stephens said.

He said shearing was a good life and fairly lucrative job at just over $300 per 100 sheep shorn.