Shearing Time

• Jakob Kanny, Grade 3, Meekatharra School Of The Air
• Short Story
• 2015

Excellence Award in the 'Read Write Repeat 2015' competition

It was winter time at Wagga Wagga Station, which meant we had to muster the sheep for shearing.
Dad and I were behind a large mob of sheep in the Nannatharra paddock slowly pushing them along, when suddenly a ewe and her lamb ran off and raced up the brothers to hide. Dad shouted at me to chase after it, so I revved up my motorbike and took off quickly after the ewe. I dodged round ant hills and weaved through the bushes to follow her up to the brothers.
The brothers are very rocky and steep with massive boulders all over them, so I took my time, dropped down in to second gear and carefully went up the hill.
Under my tyres the loose rocks crunched. It made my bike slip and I fell hard onto my knee. It hurt so much, it throbbed and it made me cry, but I wanted to be brave, so I picked up my bike and got back on it because I had a job to do!
I pushed down hard on the kick start and revved my bike up again. The engine roared back on and I turned back to where the ewe had ran. I saw her hiding behind a dead mulga tree, so I rode out wide and revved my bike up to scare her. The engine made a loud whining noise which spooked the ewe and she quickly raced down the brothers and pushed her way back into the mob with her lamb not far behind her.
I followed her back down making sure that I didn’t slip again and rode back next to dad. He looked down at me and smiled and told me that I had done a great job. I felt so proud!
Hours later we finally made it back to the yards. I was hot and tired and everything hurt from sitting on my motorbike for so long, but I had a great time helping my dad. We gave the sheep one last push through the yards and up into the shearing shed where the shearers were waiting.
I could smell the lanolin from the sheep’s wool and could hear the clickety clack of the shearers clippers as they took the fleece off the sheep’s body. I walked past all the piles of wool that needed to be pressed in to bales and out of the shed back to my motorbike. I climbed on for the last time and headed slowly back down to the house for something to eat.
All I could think about is that I had to do this all again tomorrow!