Mungo Station Woolshed

Mungo, New South Wales-2019 The woolsheds of the Australian colonial era are something to behold, impressive bush architecture and steeped in Australian colonial history. Mungo was built around 1878 by Robert Patterson, the owner of Gol Gol Station. It was constructed by Chinese labourers using locally sourced termite-resistant Murray pine logs, with the required nails and steel hardware forged locally in the station smithy. The stems of the indigenous Mallee tree were used to build the gates required for the animal holding pens. It is thought that the roofing iron was shipped from Adelaide, 500-600 km distant by paddle steamer, offloaded at one of the Darling River ports closest to the station and then transported the final distance by wagon. In 1886, 29182 sheep were hand-shorn at Mungo shed and while it was built to accommodate 30 hand shearing stands, mechanisation in 1888 resulted in a reduction to 18 stands (http://www.visitmungo.com.au/downloads/mungo-book-1788-1901.pdf). This was further reduced at some point to 5 stands. Shearing operations were powered by a stationary steam engine until the 1920s when the shed was converted to diesel. What probably did not change much was the way that power was transferred from the engine to the hand piece used by the shearer on the board. Overhead pulleys driven by flat, wide belts and spinning steel shafts was the order of the day. With a bit of imagination, one can visualise the well-oiled frenetic activity of the shearers as they work to bring in the wool clip, surrounded by the cacophony of sounds and sights of the shed, the chug of the diesel engine, the spinning of the pulleys and belts that drive the buzz of the hand pieces, the bleating of the sheep and the barking of the dogs as they herd the sheep towards the shed. While it may sound romantic, it would have been a hard life for all concerned, living and working in a harsh, isolated and unforgiving environment. True outback pioneers. In 1934 Albert Barnes married Venda Stirrat and bought Mungo Station. It is thanks to this couple that the Mungo shearing shed still exists in its original state. Under their custodianship it became a social hub for the district until the station was sold to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in 1978.

Across Lake Mungo from the woolshed

Mungo Station woolshed is located on the edge of Lake Mungo with the Walls of China in the distance

Murray pine logs laid horizontally to form the walls of the shed

The woolshed with the wool store in the foreground.

The sheep yards. The stock would be moved towards the shearing shed from distant paddocks (or under the control of shepherds before fences) eventually being held in the yards prior to shearing. These yards were probably also used for animal husbandry and general flock management requirements.

The shed was built sufficiently high to allow sheep to be penned below the floor line. This would have been particularly important in the event of rainfall as sheep would have been difficult to shear.

After shearing, the sheep were slipped down a race that ended in these pens, one for each shearer. The individual shearers tally was then calculated based on the number of sheep in their pen. It was important that the number was correct as the shearer was paid on the number of head shorn per day.

After shearing, the spray race adjacent to the shed was used to apply insecticide to protect the animals against fly strike.

Holding pens with slatted floors

Pens and the shearing board. Beautiful roof structure.

Gates were constructed from the stems of local Mallee trees with iron fittings forged in the station smithey

'out on the board the old shearer stands...' During the hand-shearing era, the board consisted of 30 stands, this was later reduced to 18 with the introduction of mechanised shearing and eventually to 5.

Part of the original shearing stand with the gates connected to the holding pens, from where the individual shearer selected his next victim and the chute into which the shorn sheep was dispatched after shearing.

Slatted floors allowed faeces to fall through to the ground below where they were likely collected for use as an organic fertiliser on the station gardens

After shearing, each individual fleece was thrown onto the table and evaluated for quality. The wool classing position in the shed was very important as the price obtained by the station owner was dependent on the classers quality determination. Different quality levels would have been placed in separate bins and baled separately, with the Station name, weight and the class stencilled on the outside. At 5m in length, this was the longest classing table that I have seen at any wool shed. The top consists of rotating wooden dowels enabling the fleece to be more easily manipulated on the table.

A hessian bag would have been inserted into the wool press, filled to overflowing with wool and then pressed, sealed, weighed, stencilled and stacked in the wool store prior to shipment to the selling centre many hundreds of km away. Originally wool was transported by dray and river boat, and later by truck and rail.

Weighing the clip

The wool store

Lake Mungo from the wool store

Power to drive the shearing shed was originally provided by a stationary stem engine, later it was replaced by a diesel engine

The crow has the last word

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