Lovely Banks expedition
Lovely Banks – November 2018
The second CMS bus trip, to the Lovely Banks Shearing Shed was, thanks to the organisational skills of Peter Shelley and the generous hospitality of Gerard McShane, a rousing success.
Our coach was one of the luxury line, with air conditioning and seat belts – no school bus for Channel Men’s Shedders.
We departed from the Shed at 0900 hours with 32 members on board, stopped at the Kempton Sports Ground, for the morning tea, supplied as part of the coach hire, where Gerard joined us.
Replete with tea and cake, and with Gerard acting as tour guide, we proceeded to Lovely Banks (from Kempton as far as Oatlands) you will rarely be out of view of one of the McShane Properties, however, it was at Lovely Banks we debarked.
Gerard was incredibly generous in sharing his time and knowledge.
The twelve stand shearing shed was in full operation with one young woman – and her two dogs, responsible for keeping the flow of sheep up to the dozen shearers.
Shearing must be the original for back breaking work, your photographer’s back is still suffering just from watching.
At three dollars an animal, the gun shearer in the shed can earn $600 a day which sounds like really good money until you consider his working life, the demands of the job and its seasonal nature.