Shearing Champs have big flow-on effect to industry
DESPITE his relatively young age of 33, Wayne Hosie is already a 16-year veteran of shearing sheds far and wide as well as holding the current NSW shearing title.
Dubbo Photo News caught up with him at the National Shearing Championship being held in Dubbo over the weekend.
He says the rewards from shearing can be fulfilling, and he commits regular time off from shearing to help train and nurture the next generation of shearers.
“I work for both TAFE and AWI (Australian Wool Innovation) when it comes to training. With the novice courses there you can come in not ever having shorn a sheep, and you can leave shearing about 40 a day,” Mr Hosie said.
“If that’s what you choose to do, you then do wool handling, pressing, crutching and eventually you advance and get a bit stronger and fitter.”
He says it’s incredibly important for industry veterans to train upand-coming shearers and novices to prevent a shortfall of skilled workers down the track.
“It’s massive. If you talk to any of the older guys – and it’s hard to imagine now – but back then no-one would tell the young fellas anything because they were worried they were going to steal their jobs, so basically you got a handpiece that didn’t work real good, you got a stand and a sheep, and you just had to sort of work it out (for yourself),” Mr Hosie told Dubbo
Photo News.
He believes many shearers back then would have had long-term injuries because they weren’t taught the right techniques on how to shear sustainably health-wise, and how to look after themselves so they could have a long and productive career.
Now, with proper training in place and courses free of charge at the moment, including one beginning at Dubbo TAFE in January, he says it’s a great option for school leavers who like the fact that you earn more money based on working harder.
“Absolutely, yeah, that’s what keeps it really honest, you’ve got to have it like that,” Mr Hosie said.
“That’s one thing I really like about shearing, it’s the honesty of it, you get back what you put in, you can’t be carried and there’s nowhere to hide.”
Mr Hosie considers the Shearing Nationals are a showcase for the industry and that people who compete at the highest level are great role-models.
“The importance of the National Shearing Championships is that it gives people an avenue to be professional about your job, and to stand up and be recognised in the industry,” he said, adding that shearers who attend the championships then go back into a shed and influence other shearers, to help them shear efficiently and cleanly.
He said they’re “still making good money” and “doing a really good job”. The competition and lessons learned by shearers attending the National Shearing Championships has a flow on effect, which he describes as “super important”.