THE adrenaline of competition and new friendships developed on the road led to shearers coming from across Australia to compete in the national shearing and woolhandling competitions on the weekend.
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Steve Rigby travelled to the competition at the Old Errowanbang Woolshed near Carcoar for the open division as a member of the Tasmanian team, while Lisa Nosworthy was the second South Australian representative in the woolhandling.
Ms Nosworthy started helping out in the shearing shed from a young age and has been working as a professional since 2001.
She entered her first competition in 2010 and was among the favourites going into the Errowanbang competition after placing fifth in the open competition in Ireland recently.
“It’s the adrenaline, I’m a very competitive person, I love the competition side of it, you never know what’s going to happen, you never know what the fleece is going to be like, it’s what happens that matters,” she said.
Along with enjoying the competitive aspect she said it also helped people become better, faster and more skilled workers.
Mr Rigby has been competitively shearing since 1992 and agreed that skills honed for competitions made people better workers and impressed employers.
“I’ve represented Tasmania for 11 years straight since it was affiliated to now,” he said.
“For me being a contractor at home, it’s really beneficial to me, it shows me how they are shearing to better themselves.
“These guys are serious enough to finish shearing last night and they are still excited to compete and put it in the public eye.”
