Three Shearer’s Handpieces

Hand shears

Wolseley No 3 Handpiece, 1912
mechanical shearing handpiece

Chicago Flexible Shaft Co., patented 1902
mechanical shearing handpiece

The story of the mechanical shearing machine
Frederick Wolseley arrived in Melbourne in 1854. He was a jackaroo, and eventually bought Euroka Station, near Walgett in 1876.

He began experiments on a machine for shearing sheep in 1868. His first working model was developed in 1872 and an improved model was demonstrated at the wool warehouse of Goldsbrough Mort & Co. Ltd, Melbourne in 1887.

He set up the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Co. Pty Ltd in Sydney in 1887, with Wolseley and Herbert Austin as Directors.

In 1888 the first shed in Australia to be shorn entirely mechanically used the the Wolseley machine. By 1900 mechanical shearing was general and the hand shears were a thing of the past.

Duntroon

Duntroon land owned by George Campbell included Garryowen and Dodsworth. Garryowen’s eastern boundary is marked by the present day Campbell St and Dodwoth’s western boundary is today’s Cooma St.

Micalago Station