The Shearers

For thirty years, Andrew Chapman has travelled through the backblocks of Australia to photograph the big shearing sheds and the assorted characters that inhabit them. 

Originally, it was his way of recording a way of life that seemed destined to disappear. When he started, there were predictions that robotic shearing would take the place of the grinding hard work in the sheds. Shearing says Andrew, is “the hardest physical work you can see anywhere in Australia

However, fifty years on, the great properties are still there, and their magnificent sheds are still humming with human activity. With only a few concessions to modern ways, the sheds and their shearers continue to work as a kind of living testaments to times past. 

While international economic forces may be behind the reduction of the national sheep flock, technological advances have had little impact on the work within the sheds; and so the way of life continues.

While attempting to capture a world he thought was disappearing, Andrew has beautifully captured a living record of a way of life that continues to persevere.