The shearing machine was developed by three people: Frederick York Wolseley, John Howard and George Gray. 

Frederick York Wolseley was born in Ireland in 1837 and came to the colony of New South Wales in 1854. He was managing his brother-in-law’s station in the Riverina during the 1860’s. At this time he became interested in the possibility of shearing sheep by machine shears instead of blades. By 1872 he had produced a working model based on horse clippers. Four years later the machine was tested on Euroka, Wolseley’s property near Walgett. By 1877 he had patented two shearing machines but these proved to be unsatisfactory.

John Howard, a Birmingham trained rnechanic, had made a substantial improvement to the horse clippers and was interested in taking his ideas further to develop a sheep shearing machine. Wolseley had been impressed by Howard’s work and had bought the rights to his horse clippers and employed him as a mechanic on Euroka.

George Gray was the blacksmith on Euroka and had worked on Wolseley’s early shearing machines.

These three men became the team that developed Wolseley’s shearing machine. Wolseley provided the money and facilities at Euroka, Howard his mechanical abilities and George Gray skill as blacksmith.

For each new improvement George Gray hand forged the parts in his blacksmith’s shop where he had his forge, anvil, a small foot lathe, a hand drill and a collection of hand tools. He also claimed to be the first man to shear a sheep completely by shearing machine.

But Wolseley’s invention
was just the beginning

By 1885 they had produced the first satisfactory shearing machine. Howard had developed a new fork for the hand piece with a spring prong to reduce the wear between it and the cutter. The machine was driven by an endless rope which ran through pulleys. A steam engine drove the overhead drive shaft.

The men at Euroka tried the new machine on the sheep. One, Hassan Ali, from Khartoum, quickly became an expert in its use.

Wolseley announced that the new shearing machine would be demonstrated at Goldsborough and Company’s woolstore in Melbourne. Howard and Hassan Ali brought the shearing machine from Euroka. The demonstration was to be a contest between the shearing machine and the blades. Six sheep were to be shorn, three by Hassan Ali with the shearing machine and three by Dave Brown using blades.

There were many skeptics looking on but some showed a keen interest. The contest  began. Wolseley was disappointed as Dave Brown finished his sheep first. The shearing machine had lost contest. 

For in Melbourne the tests saw machine shearers winning.

Then someone suggested that Hassan Ali run the machine shears over the blade-shorn sheep. The results were staggering. Another 2¼ pounds of wool was cut from the three sheep. This really meant something to the industry where an average fleece weighed in at 8 pounds and shearers were shearing over 80 million sheep each year. This fact saw the shearing machine winning the contest although its adoption by shearers and some graziers was slow.

The manager of Samuel McCaughey’s Dunlop Station was present at the demonstration and he decided to install the new machines. He was delayed by the strike of 1886 but the 40 machines were installed ready for the 1888 shearing. More than the required number turned up for a pen. The forty were selected but they refused to sign their agreements when told they were to use the new shearing machines.

They walked off, crossed the Darling River, set up camp on a stock reserve and prepared to sit it out. At this time conditions were hard. A shearer sent a deposit of one pound to the station to hold a stand. In many cases a deposit was sent to several stations. If he didn’t turn up he lost his deposit, was often out of work and had to find another shed.

The shearer supplied his own shears and worked from 6am to 6pm with a 4pm knock off on Saturday and was paid 12/6 for 100 sheep shorn.

Howard was at Dunlop to oversee the operation of the new machines and sharpen the cutters. The shearers’ rejection was a great blow. It took three weeks of talking to the men before 40 were persuaded to give it a go.

The shearers were brutal, and squatters were mean.

When the bell rang at Dunlop a new era began. A frantic whirr and chatter of the machines filled the shed. Gone was the well known click of the shears. But the problems had not gone. The shearers were still not keen and did what they could to wreck the future of Wolseley’s shearing machine. They nicked the drive rope or pulled the machines into gear and let them fly dangerously around the board. Combs were put on upside down and cutters screwed down so tightly that they burned.

The tallies were low. Men who shore 200 sheep a day with the blades were shearing only 40. There was a real problem in the positioning of the sheep. The blade shearer could shear in almost any position. The machine shearer had to hold the sheep in the best position within the tether of his machine and get in the long blows that would remove the fleece. Learning to hold the sheep in the correct position to get the least number of blows was the secret of success.

Just as some were getting the hang of it and having a bit of a go another problem arose. The shearers refused to supply their own combs and cutters. In the past the shearer always supplied his own shears and sharpened them. At Dunlop they were asked to supply their own combs and cutters which were sharpened by Howard.

The shearers moved back to their camp across the river. Howard tried hard to persuade the men but he could not budge them in their stand even though he joined in their sports and impressed them with his athletic ability even swimming the high Darling which few would enter. After three weeks Dunlop gave in and shearing began again.

Tallies started to climb. One shearer shore 100 and Howard offered a bonus of 2/6 for each sheep over a 150 a day. Shearing began in earnest. The shed average climbed to 120 per day and three men qualified for the bonus.

Soon the blades became obsolete tools of the past.

The shearers shore 184,000 sheep at Dunlop which was the first shed in the world to complete a shearing entirely by machine. Other sheds followed and shearing was conducted with Wolseley’s new shearing machine.

In 1889 Wolseley started his sheep shearing company in Birmingham, England, producing shearing machines for the world. Herbert Austin, the foreman of his Sydney factory became manager. Austin became famous as a motor car inventor and in 1895 named the motor car he invented - The Wolseley - after his former boss.

Frederick York Wolseley died in 1899 to be remembered as the man who invented the shearing machine.

Fun Fact – What came first…the shearing machine or the car?

As sent in by Bob Sainsbury; publication unknown; courtesy of the Nyngan Shearing Shed and Museum

Fast Fact 

Wolseley Shearing Machine and the British Motor Car

The Sheep Shearing Machine was invented by Frederick York Wolseley (1837-99), who recognised the need after shearers deserted the woolsheds to join the rush to the goldfields in Victoria in the mid 1800s. After years of development, he perfected the shearing machine at Eureka station, between Walgett and Lightning Ridge. The first Australian shed to adopt the shearing machine was Dunlop station at Louth NSW, where 184,000 sheet were sheared in 1888. Some 22 other sheds had adopted the Wolseley shearing machine by the end of that year.

Wolseley established a factory to build the shearing machine in Sydney and following its success, moved to London to set up a similar factory which was name the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company. Sadly, Frederick Wolseley became critically ill, but before he died in 1899 he had his manager of the Sydney factory, Herbert Austin, come back to London to manage the business. After Wolseley’s death, Austin decided to fulfil their shared ambition by building a motor car. This he did and he named the car the Wolseley after his friend, Frederick. Inspired by its success, Herbert Austin then formed the Austin Motor Car Company in 1905 and the era of the Wolseley and the Austin 7 and many other successful British motor cars began. Herbert Austin was made a Baron in 1936 and died in 1941.

Thus the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine and the British motor car are forever linked in history.

Publication unknown; supplied by   Bob Sainsbury; courtesy of nyngan shearing shed and museum