Allen Sheridan has seen it all when it comes to the wool industry.
The highs, the lows, the years of stockpiles, big industry changes and wool price ebbs and flows.
Mr Sheridan started his career in the industry at just 14 years of age when he began training to be a wool classer, work he said he had been involved with virtually all his life.
"I have been a registered wool classer for over 50 years and I have only just handed my stencil back in this year," he said.
"I have had a lifetime in wool."
And in that time he has noticed a lot of changes in the industry.
Fifty years ago, Mr Sheridan worked as the Bairnsdale manager for Australian Estates Company Ltd, a prominent wool brokerage company at the time, and leased some land on the banks of the Tambo River at Bengworden, just south-west of Bairnsdale in East Gippsland.
At the time, he purchased 400 Barunah Plains-blood Merino wethers for 20 cents a head, a total of $80 combined, which he grazed on his leased property on the Tambo River.
"Because I worked for the Australian Estates, employees were not allowed to own stock at the time, so they were all registered in my wife's name," he said.
On the leased property there were no official shearing facilities at the time, so Mr Sheridan and Harry Cunningham shore all 400 sheep in an old dairy and sent the wool to be sold in Melbourne.
"That wool topped the year's sale for Australian Estates lambs wool," he said.
Exactly 50 years later, Mr Sheridan and his family now own that same property on the banks of the Tambo River - named Garoogong - where they are producing 15.9-micron wool.
"Fifty years on, we got the third top price through Nutrien for our lambs wool that have grown up at the very same place," he said.
The Sheridan family have acquired the use of a number of additional acres to support the expanded operation that also now includes 400 Angus breeder cattle.
Reflecting on his long career, Mr Sheridan said there had been plenty of ups and downs and 2022 was no different with crossbred wool seeing decline in value as a result of increased production and other factors.
"That's the game too isn't it?" he said.
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Mr Sheridan said fine woolgrowers were getting a good run at the moment.
"Fine wool was pretty ordinary for a while, but we have had a good run in the last year or two," he said.
"Our main wool clip is reasonably fine and that is selling pretty well at the moment."
While ups and downs are part and parcel of a life in agriculture, he said the wool industry also seemed to follow the age-old progression.
"If you stick to it, everyone gets a turn at a good year eventually," he said.
This continued to ring true today as wool prices continue to fluctuate.
While finer micron wool continued to perform well in 2022, coarser crossbred wool struggled to experience any major upturn alongside growing levels of production.
Mr Sheridan said reliance on international markets and their ongoing ability to pay top-dollar had potential issues, but the Australian sheep and wool industry stayed strong over the decades and Australian woolgrowers had a lot to be upbeat about.
"We have seen this over the years," he said.
And what of those original 400 wethers that kickstarted the records?
Mr Sheridan sold them for $1 a head shortly after they were shorn for that famous wool clip.
They were brought by Colin Cox and headed across to Bendigo after having produced some of the state's best wool for that year in Gippsland.