Sports Shear and Wool Handling Competition – in its fourth year
BARRABA SHOW 2026
Sports Shear and Wool Handling Competition – in its fourth year
In 2022, local shearer Jock Mallise decided to work to get Barraba on the national shearing and wool handling competition circuit. “Barraba has a long and proud history as a centre of the wool industry – it still is,” Jock told me. After a huge amount of hard work by Jock, the Barraba Show Society and other volunteers, a substantial grant from the Royal Agricultural Society Foundation, and support from Australian Wool Innovation and other sponsors, it all happened. The old sheep pavilion at the Showground was transformed into a modern four stand shearing board with the sheep and wool handling (and spectator) facilities to match, ready for the 2023 Show.
It was a great success – “I was overwhelmed”, Jock told me. With over eighty competitors registered, and when the first shearers hit the board on Saturday at the 2023 Barraba Show, there was already a crowd in the stands. The crowd grew as the competition hotted up, and, right in front of the spectators, the wool handling competitors’ skills were on display. Such was the entertainment on display that the spectator stands overflowed; some spectators stayed all day, others kept coming back.
From that beginning, the Sports Shear and Wool Handling Competition became the major attraction for the 2024 Barraba Show, and for the 2025 Show, attracting even more competitors and spectators each year. Improvements in facilities for shearers, wool handlers, spectators (and sheep!) were made each year, as well as adding a competition for traditional blade shearing – a spectacular competition! An added bonus was that this special built facility is perfect for training the future crop of shearers. Shearing schools, accredited by TAFE NSW, are held there.
The two days at the Show are as follows:
Saturday 7 March 7.30 am – Sports Shear competition starts (Merino sheep).
Sunday 8 March 7.30 am – Sports Shear competition starts (Crossbred sheep)
On both days Wool Handling competition starts when shearing heats for the five classes are finished.
While it will be mostly the same competitors on the two days, the skills and techniques used are different for merinos and crossbreds – the champions, who wins the day’s battle, may be quite different.
This is an enormous operation, that takes months to plan. Moving the individual competitor in and out of their heats and finals efficiently is a very complicated logistic exercise, as is moving the sheep, and pressing and moving the wool. At least five hundred sheep will be needed on each day. On Saturday those five hundred sheep will need to be yarded, shorn, then trucked out so that the next five hundred are ready at 7.30 am on Sunday. On Saturday, the fleeces from the merinos may make up to fifty bales; they have to be pressed and moved out. There is no woolshed in which to stack them!
This enormous operation will need many pairs of hands throughout the day. Moving the sheep, clearing the board, pressing and moving the wool, supporting the competitors, the list goes on. Many volunteers are urgently needed. If you think that you can offer some help call/text Jock Mallise 0428 416 050, or contact the Facebook page.
The Sports Shear and Wool Handling Competition on its own is a reason why you must visit the 2026 Barraba Show!