Gabrielle Duykers, Naracoorte Community News

A young Naracoorte wool classer has claimed top honours at the Royal Easter Show in Sydney.

Twenty-year-old Sarah Haynes won the 2022 Australian Wool Exchange/TAFE National Graduate Woolclasser competition on April 12, making her the first South Australian to receive the prestigious award.

Ms Haynes said the win came as a “big surprise”.

“It felt really good but it was definitely something I wasn’t used to – being in a crowd with a lot of different elements to the competition,” she said.

Ms Haynes gained her professional wool classer qualification through the Shearing Contractors’ Association of Australia (SCAA) and was trained by Alie Tuinder from Kingston.

She was selected to represent SA from about forty recent SCAA graduates, before being pitted against eight other 2021 wool classer graduates from across the country – all chosen by their state’s training providers.

The competitors were tasked with classing fine Merino, medium Merino, and crossbred wool.

Claiming first place, Ms Haynes was awarded the coveted ‘Golden Stencil’ and $500 in prize money, while second place was won by Emma Pearson from New South Wales, followed by Grace Jones from Victoria in third place.

Ms Haynes said her father, shearer and SCAA wool handler training CEO Glenn Haynes, first inspired her love for the profession.

“Growing up, I always used to help out around the shed in school holidays and things like that, so I think that’s where my passion first started,” she said.

The “fast-paced” environment is one of the many things she loves about being a wool classer.

“I get to travel almost all year round and just follow the coast and meet heaps of new people,” Ms Haynes said. “Plus it keeps you nice and fit and you earn good money.”

The Australian Wool Exchange/TAFE National Graduate Woolclasser competition has run since 2012 and is designed to raise the profile of wool classing as an important Australian profession.

This article appeared in Naracoorte Community News.