Shearing time at Billabong

Australia’s 120 million sheep are scattered all over the continent wherever there is green grass and water. Billabong Station, in the hot dry interior, depends upon a nearby billabong to supply water to moisten the fertile soil. On the station property 40,000 sheep graze and each summer, shearing at Billabong commences. Gangs of shearers travel from far and wide to work at Billabong. The sheep are mustered by men and their dogs, sent through the drafting yards and into the shearing shed. The wool taken from the shearers is skirted, sorted, and pressed into 300-lb bales - and sent on its way to the sales. After that, Australia’s wool goes to the world.