HARD work out in the North-West brings its rewards which have not been lost on the Crowley family of Goonoo Goonoo Station, Brewarrina.
Thirty-year-old Scott Crowley, the next largest employer in the region behind the Brewarrina Shire Council is now employing upwards of 80 people in his CRO contract shearing business.
He and some of his mates are so keen on the shearing and wool industry, they are off to New Zealand on Sunday for a month’s work while there is a lull in his business.
Mr Crowley said NSW sheep breeders and graziers affected by the prolonged dry and drought had him shear all their sheep earlier in the year as a wool income stream in case they had to quit all surplus and even breeding stock if the drought continued.
“We had shorn about three-quarters the number of sheep we would shear per annum in the first six months of this year,” he said.
“Everyone needed their sheep shorn as wool prices are so high, and now the the Brewarrina region has received up to 60 or more millimetres of rain owners have decided to move back to their original shearing.
“That has left us with a month to spare, so I decided to head over the “Dip” and spend a month shearing in the south island.”
With several members of his shearing teams and friends, Mr Crowley flew out of Dubbo on Sunday for Central Otago to work for local contractor, Peter Lyon based at Alexandra.
Mr Crowley’s shearing teams work from Cooma through to Tibooburra, up the Dalby, Queensland, and across to Mount Hope “and anywhere between,” he said.
He gained his wool classing ticket when 16 at Red Bend College, Forbes, and after leaving school began rouseabouting and pressing then shearing.
“I was about 17 when I kicked-off and I have been contracting now for the past three to four years,” he said.
Scott and his brother Matt are fourth generation Crowleys on Goonoo Goonoo Station, the first owner being their great-grandfather Bill Crowley.
Ownership then moved to their grandfather, then their father, Brett, who with their mother, Emma, are current owners.
At just 25 years-of-age, Matt has been conducting his own pregnancy scanning business Moos and Ewes, for some years.
His territory runs right through NSW and Qld and Scott said he wears-out a Hi-Lux just about every year.
Matt’s been doing this now for about eight years, basically from when he left school and is always flat-strap,” Scott said.
