Fred Wolseley: A Man of Many Parts

Frederick York Wolseley is known for inventing the first successful sheep shearing machine, a design still used today. Over a period of twenty years, while living as a squatter and pastoralist, Wolseley worked on developing his machine, progressing from a rotary mechanism to the scissor-action hand piece. The development of the hand piece involved multiple stages, overcoming challenges in design, manufacturing, and long travel distances. As machine shearing gained popularity, pastoralists adopted the new method, leading to the construction of large shearing sheds, with one of the first successful uses of the machine at Toganmain Station in the Riverina. This book details Wolseley’s life as an inventor, squatter, pastoralist, and industrialist in Australia.

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