A female shearer is encouraging young people to consider taking up the profession as the country continues to face a shortage spurred on by the pandemic.

Hannah Doll has been working on Kevin Harper’s Ariah Park property. She has spent several years working alongside her Temora born and bred partner Nathan Alchin, owner of Nathan Alchin Shearing, and enjoys the local area.

While Ms Doll had never expected to spend her working life in a shearing shed, the 29-year-old now couldn’t imagine her life being any different.

Originally from Germany, Ms Doll came to Australia on a working holiday shortly after finishing school and found herself roustabouting in her first shed in Nyngan at the age of 20.

She moved around the various sheds and with each one she improved her skills in other areas like wool classing and crutching. But it wasn’t until just recently she learned how to shear after attending lessons at Yass.

Ms Doll believes there’s plenty of reasons why more young people, particularly women, should give the profession a go.

“There are quite a few women shearing now and some are recording good tallies. It’s definitely a contrast because shearing sheds have traditionally been male dominated,” she said.

“I have to say I’ve never felt uncomfortable in a shed and I’ve always been welcomed. The old ‘ducks on the pond’ mentality and other views about women in the sheds has largely ended and my experience has been good so far,” she said.

But she agrees the physically demanding nature of the work is one thing that hasn’t changed.

“It’s not just physically demanding; it can also be mentally demanding. There’s a lot of moments where you need to keep your cool particularly if the sheep are playing up and its forty degrees. It can be trying, but even then, fundamentally rewarding.

“The working conditions are still old school and many sheds still have old shearing plants and equipment. But a lot of others have been replaced with more improved and quieter machines. Several sheds are also being remodelled to include toilets and eating areas and a lot of that is really in an effort to entice young people to join the industry.

“When I first started it was a unlike anything I’d ever done. I went to school in the city and shearing never even entered my mind. But it’s really worked for me because I love to work with animals, working dogs and sheep.”

Shearing schools and wool-class training is available through Australian Wool International (AWI) and even someone just out of school looking to earn some money before going to uni could give it a go.

This article appeared in the Narrandera Argus, 10 February 2022.

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