I have been asked to write on the impressive Wallandool Shearing Shed.
Wallandool Station was primarily engaged in sheep farming, from the 1850’s. Records indicate from 1899 to 1905, 41,000 sheep was the average number carried on the property. The wool clip from these sheep produced in:
- 1907 --- 691 bales
- 1908 --- 659 bales
- 1909 --- 849 bales
- 1910 --- 486 bales
- 1911 --- 710 bales
Wallandool built a large woolshed consisting of 32 stands to cope with the number of sheep. Between 2,300 and 2,500 sheep could be housed under cover. Exact dates when the shed was built are not known, however, it appears to have been built in two stages and insurance documents indicate a woolshed being in existence in 1884.
The word is that when the station was broken up, a wing or part of the original Wallandool shearing shed was moved to the west and added to the stables at the Wallandool homestead to make another shearing shed. This building is still standing today but is showing the ravages of time.
The land on which the original Wallandool shearing shed is now, is a farm call Truro. Truro was bought and sold from the Ryan family (in 1925) to the Jelbart Family, Mr Everett Jelbart, to Mr Gordon Hogg in the 1940’s. Truro and the original Wallandool shearing shed was then passed from Gordon Hogg to his son Max which was the last time the shearing shed was used. The property was sold a few years ago, where the old original Wallandool shearing shed now stands quietly reminding us of times passed when Australia was founded and prospered on a sheep’s back, through the toil of many a shearer and shed hand.
Written by Fiona Beckett.