Readers' photos!
Have you got any interesting photos that you’d like to share with other readers of Beyond the Bale? If so, please email the image and a brief description to the editor of Beyond the Bale Richard Smith at richard.smith@wool.com, or you can tag us #beyondthebale on Instagram.
90th birthday treat
When he was a young man, Russell Walton of Dalby in Queensland used to shear 160 sheep a day. For his 90th birthday in September, he set himself a challenge to see if he could still shear just one sheep. In front of a crowd of friends and relatives at his birthday party, Russell expertly and confidently set about his task and completed it with a huge smile on his face. Well done, Russ! The photo was taken by Ange Stirling of Ange Stirling Photography based in Dalby.
Fleece as white as snow
James and Dianne Cowlishaw of ‘Wilga Vale’ at Yelarbon in the Goondiwindi region of Queensland sent in this lovely photo captioning it “Grandma had a little lamb, who's fleece was white as snow”.
Birds eye view
Woolgrower Ben Creek sent in this great drone shot of his set-up at crutching time at Boyup Brook in the south-west of Western Australia.
Attention to detail
AWI shearer trainer Kevin Gellatly full focussed at a five-day novice wool harvesting course held at the Teakle family’s property at Northampton in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It was an awesome week with everyone working hard and learning heaps, all with a great attitude.
Focusing on the job
Year 11 students from the WA College of Agriculture Harvey going through their paces in October learning from AWI trainers about wool, shearing, wool handling, team ethics and so much more.
What’s shearing without bales and kids?
Leanne Ohlmeyer from Waikerie in the Riverland of South Australia sent in this photo from shearing at ‘Moya’ in September. She says she just managed to keep her boys still enough for a photo before they began their gymnastics on the wool bales again.
The story of my suit
Hugh Ellis of Eugowra in the Central West of NSW sent in a remarkable story of how he lost almost everything in the terrible floods that swamped the town two years ago:
On the 14 November 2022, the town and region experienced a catastrophic flood. Houses were washed off their foundations, families and pets climbed onto the roofs of their houses, eighty-year-olds sat on chairs on top of their kitchen tables up to their necks in water. Young families with babies and toddlers were in trees and on the back of trucks.
Sadly two much-loved locals died that day but it was a miracle more weren’t lost. If the inland tsunami had come at night, the death toll could have soared. It resulted in the largest helicopter rescue in Australia’s history to date.
My wife Lyn and I had recently sold our farm and bought what used to be the Eugowra Golf Club to renovate and turn it into our home, a good retirement project. So this we did, living in chaos for seven months; we finally finished and had our builders’ cut out party on the 11th November. It had been a hard slog but we were a big happy family, all the various tradies proud of their achievements.
Three days later, we virtually had nothing. The flood smashed nearly every window, tore most doors off their hinges and ripped our beautifully polished floors out of the ground – piers included. The water was gutter high and we survived by scrambling up an attic ladder which had been installed during the renovations, into the ceiling cavity. Eventually we bashed our way out onto the roof and were rescued by a helicopter.
We lost 95% of our worldly possessions that day, including my woollen suit, which I had only worn three or four times. In the scheme of things this was an insignificant loss and I hadn’t given it a thought.
However, some months after the clean-up, Lyn was mowing the lawn and noticed a pile of mud at the base of a tree. To her astonishment it was my suit, which it turned out had been originally found by our children snared on a boundary fence that had been torn out by the flood (strainer posts included) and ended up in a tangled mess in our neighbour’s lucerne paddock. Lyn blasted it with the pressure cleaner and hung it over a pallet to dry. A friend then kindly took the suit to the dry cleaner and it came back as a good as new and I have worn it several times since.
It may seem like a small, insignificant win but when it is the only piece of clothing you are left with, other than what you are wearing or have been given, it IS significant.
The suit is in great condition and I think it is an excellent advertisement for Australian Merino wool!
This article appeared in the December 2024 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.
