I would recommend reading "The Shearer's Motel" by Roger MacDonald for an account of how tough the shearer's job really is. Also Ray Sherman's "The Shearing Life in Australia" for some great stories and photographs. I have written about shearing before but there was an interesting front page article in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year.
The SMH article by Debra Jopson highlighted the toughness of the job and the nationwide shortage of good shearers. In 2006 the census counted only 4,173 shearers and they have to shear about 70 million sheep in a year - that's almost 17,000 each and at $2.50 a sheep makes $42,500 income per annum. Not much for some of the fittest athletes in the world. Of course the best shearers will earn $80 - 100,000 pa and good on them!
The Dubbo TAFE trainer observed that shearers now do warm up and down exercises and have training regimes to protect against injuries and prolong their careers. I can see the day when our local shearers are regular visitors to our planned yoga studio to learn some techniques to improve their core strength and flexibility and some ways to destress that don't involve a hundred beers. Not such a stretch when you consider most of the football players they watch every weekend are probably already using yoga in their training regimes.
Perhaps we will open the first yoga retreat in the Goulburn area and have a shearer's night once a month with prana, kirtan, asana, mudra and meditation followed by light beers and karma yoga in the shearing shed?
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