Shearers. Patsy Adam-Smith. 1982.

For 150 years Australia rode on the sheep’s back……..

The Shearers is the first history of that independent army of men who tramped the great shearing routes of the outback. Patsy Adam-Smith talked to shearer’s, musterers, teamsters, drovers, rouseabouts, classes, cooks, contractors and property owners about what life was like when wool was king.

Patsy visited sheds in every state, from Western Australia to Queensland, across that broad, dry heartland of Australian lore and legend. She tells of the strikes of the 1890s, when unionism came to the bushman as a religion and fostered that mateship long admired as the greatest of Australian traits.