Station Work 29 



the date fixed for commencing the actual work 

 of shearing, all is bustle and activity on the 

 station. 



A few days before shearing starts, the shearers 

 begin to arrive. Some come on horseback, some 

 on bicycles, and a good many on foot, carrying 

 their swags after the recognised bush fashion. 

 The huts set aside for their accommodation are 

 soon filled to overflowing, and many of them camp 

 under tents or in the open. The shed overseer, 

 engineer, wool-classers, cooks, and other helpers 

 have already been engaged, and the roll of the 

 applicants for work is called two days before the 

 shearing starts. Those to be engaged as shearers 

 are first selected, and sign their agreements in the 

 presence of the manager, shed overseer, and book- 

 keeper. Then a number of wool-pressers and 

 " rouse- abouts" are engaged, the duties of the lat- 

 ter being elastic in the extreme. Some of them 

 are "pickers-up," removing the shorn fleeces 

 from the shearing-board, and keeping it clear for 

 the shearer. Others are employed in driving the 

 woolly sheep to the yard and transferring them 

 to the pens inside the wool-shed, in branding 

 shorn sheep, in moving them back to the pad- 

 dock, and in loading the waggons that carry the 

 wool away. When all the men required have 

 been engaged, the disappointed ones roll their 

 swags and go off in search of employment some- 

 where else. 



Shearing usually starts at the end of the week, 



