ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

This is the poem I spoke of about the shearing shed.
Not quite as moving as your ghost poem Terry, but you get the idea...

Antro

© Ross Magnay Sept. 1991

It’s standing so majestic you can almost here it say,
“Stop awhile and come right in before you’re on your way.”
So stop I did and wandered in, a scene began to flash,
of men and dogs and wool and sheep, as blades and fleeces gnash.

And sounds of rushing people flourish brooms and throw the fleece,
there’s bleating sheep and barking dogs, no time for rest or peace.
The smell of grease and tar and dust, combined with shearers sweat,
and steam from sheep and toiling men, make the air feel wet.

And then it’s gone, because of course, it wasn’t even there,
for many years have come and gone since blades have flashed in there.
but I enjoyed that little trip as I am standing here,
to see the way they used to shear, back in yesteryear.

I can see the picture that your words have painted Ross.

Having as youngster spent a bit of time in shearing sheds, and although they weren't using blades,
the rest of what I remember could just about fit into that scene.

It's funny how, once you start talking about those long gone days, other memories return of other things you've come across.
It got me recalling how when I first went to Coober Pedy in the sixties, how we used to crawl through old partly back filled drives to noodle.
It helped to keep us above water at times. We were finding reasonable low grade opal that the old blokes had chucked away because it was unsaleable in their day. I used to often imagine those old blokes toiling away down there probably with a candle for light - we used carbide lamps.

Always enjoy your poems mate, and this ones no exception.

Terry

Yep Ross, certainly can relate to that. There is nothing like a quiet shearing shed to propel the mind into a time capsule from the past, almost eerie at times.
Cheers mate
Ron

The Australian Labour Party was founded by the shearers. Wonder what those old blokes would think of the present political landscape.

What a great word picture, Ross!

I was never involved in shearing, but your poem took me back to a visit to Willie Station on the Macquarie Marshes some years back - where the old shearing shed had exactly that kind of atmosphere!

Cheers
Shelley

G'day Terry, thanks mate, yeah I have spent some time in shearing sheds as a lad too, no blades either, not quite that old! I have seen blade demos though and I can certainly see the way it would have been in those sheds based on the more modern sheds. in the late seventies and early eighties sheds with raised boards become the new thing, it was designed to make it easier for the rousabouts to pick up the fleeces and seemed to work OK too.

G'day Ron, yeah mate, bit like a lot of the old rural buildings, and indeed not so rural I suppose, you tend to get swept back in time if there is nothing going on to distract you.

I doubt the old shearers would be impressed by too much that the modern political landscape presents at all Neville, mind you, as hard as they do work, they are mostly a pretty cantankerous mob, they can take a bit of keeping happy sometimes.

Thanks Shelly, don't be too dissapointed that you have missed out on shearing sheds, or shearing in general, as romantic as it may seem to some, it can be pretty hard and fast, shearers get paid by the number of sheep they shear so if a rousabout, a presser or anyone else slows them down at all they can get pretty cranky, while it's on it is full on!

You can see it, smell it, hear it, feel it - you put us right there in that shed with this one, Ross! I love it.

Thanks Catherine, that is the way I felt. Funny thing, last week I was away in the NSW, Qld and SA outback with an old mate of mine, traveling around on a trip from here to the glasshouse mountains and back, we went to have a look at Cordillo Downs Shearing shed, it is old and pretty much just the stone walls and roof still intact, it didn't impress me at all. They claim it is the biggest shearing shed in Australia, (the property is now a cattle station with no sheep on it) however from memory it is not much bigger than I remember Antro to be, and certainly no where near as impressive, in fairness though, Antro was still in use when I saw it, albeit with more modern overhead gear.