IT'S morning smoko and Rianne Miles picks at burrs in her hands as she throws back a hard-earned sandwich and cup of tea in a hot, dusty, lanolin-coated shearing shed in western NSW.
Having just completed her first two-hour run of the day and shearing about 20 sheep, the former city girl is showing her country counterparts – and a shearing shed full of mostly burly blokes – that sheilas can make it in the shearing shed too.
"No doubt about it, this is one of the toughest jobs around," she said.
"At the end of the day I just fall into bed and my muscles ache no end, but I absolutely love shearing and I want to keep getting better and prove that I can do it too."
Prior to a trip to a relative's sheep station earlier this year, the 18-year-old had never set foot inside a shearing shed but now she is carving out a career on the boards and winning prizes for her wool handling skills.
Five days a week, Ms Miles and a team of shearers, woolhandlers and rouseabouts work long hours in shearing sheds across NSW.
It's hot, sweaty work no matter what time of year it is.
The average ewe weighs about 60 kilograms, so for the "gun shearers" – or those whose tally climbs upwards of 300 sheep a day – dragging upwards of 18 tonnes of sheep every day, year-round, is part and parcel of the trade.
But the shearing game has been – for the best part of 150 years – a male-dominated industry.
Even until the mid-1980s women weren't allowed in shearing sheds to work, but with the country facing a major shortage of shearers, the industry has opened its doors and is welcoming women into the sheds.
In 1983, during the tense industrial dispute over the introduction of wide combs, there were about 30,000 shearers.
Seven years ago, there were 4173 shearers and of those, just 97 were women, but the industry believes there are now about 200 women working with shears.
"Ever since the drought, it's been getting harder and harder to find shearers and lots of shearers got out of the industry when work was inconsistent and the national flock had dipped to historic lows, so training young shearers is a priority but the industry is also being innovative," TAFE shearing trainer Jim Murray said.
Mr Murray runs six, two-week novice shearing and woolhandling schools in NSW annually, covering the basics needed to get a start working in the industry.
He has also recently completed a school with a difference – the students were all female.
TAFE Western Institute's Dubbo rural campus hosted 16 women aged 15-43 who learnt the art of wool handling, board work, skirting, wool pressing and shearing – including sheep handling techniques, correct blow placement, safe and efficient work practices, comb and cutter grinding and gear maintenance.
*Full story in this week's Stock & Land Careers in Agriculture feature
