Tin Dog, Damper & Dust: A Shearer’s Life

WEST AUSTRALIANA FAUNA AGRICULTURE SHEEP

Autobiography of an elderly Western Australian shearer who still holds the world record for shearing with hand shears. His life as a labourer, shearer and farmer reflects aspects of 20th-century social and rural economic history. In 1909, Don Munday’s family arrived in Western Australia and settled in the Kirk’s Rock district, near Wickepin, two hundred miles from Perth. Munday was eight years old when his father died, and his mother was left to raise seven children in harsh conditions. During the Great Depression, Munday worked at wheat lumping, road clearing and shearing. He became famous as a shearer: in England, he broke the world shearing record in 1937. The introduction is by University of WA history lecturer, Charlie Fox.