Brian Hunt's 60 years of classing recognised by Australian Wool Exchange

It's a notable achievement but for one point. Mr Hunt has been a wool classer for 71 years. AWEX only acknowledges the time since the organisation's start, which was 1963.

The Hunt family's Irish ancestors first took up land in the Murrurundi district in 1867. Part of the original block of Coogah West was 320 acres (130 hectares) and was won in a land ballot.

In 1954, Brian Hunt and his father, Mark, bought into the property and added more area to it, so the entire holding is 1012 ha (2500 acres).

Mark Hunt was a shearing contractor in the district, and deciding to follow in his father's footsteps; Brian began his classing studies in 1951 with the East Sydney Technical College, with correspondence studies.

"The first year of my course was correspondence, and I would go into the Murrurundi Police Station and sit my tests with the police keeping an eye on me," Mr Hunt said.

"I needed to get three clips classed to get my stencil. It had to be two Merino flocks and one crossbred or vice versa. My first three sheds were Bobadil at Willow Tree, Whissonsett, Timor and Spring Vale at Wingen.

"Dad joined the Shearing Contractors Association in 1948, and I took over his team in 1959. I had sheds all over the Upper Hunter, Burren Junction and Moree districts."

He finally sold the shearing contracting business to Murrurundi local Luke Peters in 2017. Mr Hunt said wool production was an essential part of the economy in the Upper Hunter in the 1950s and '60s.

"At one stage within eight miles (almost 20 kilometres) of Murrurundi, three sheds shore a total of 40,000 sheep. Now wool growing has all but disappeared from the district."

He said that classing in a big shed was always a goal for young classers. "A big clip is one with 1000 bales or more," he said. "Terlings, owned (at the time) by Sinclair Hill near Boggabilla, was my first 1000-bale clip. But it was done with old-fashioned presses before power wool presses were around.

"What would have been 1000 bales back then might only be 700 bales with a power press.

"Terlings was also where my biggest day was. We had 16 shearers put 2220 sheep across the board. The biggest day of crutching I worked on was when six crutchers put 3636 sheep across the board."

Apart from the advent of the power wool press, wide combs and many more women are some of the significant changes Mr Hunt has seen in the industry.

Mr Hunt continues to class wool clips, overseeing shearing at Coogah West earlier this year.

For the last two decades, his flock has used Merino rams from the Bungulla flock at Manilla.

"Before Bungulla, we would buy our rams mainly from Strath Sendall at Rossmore at Burren Junction. We used to buy at Egelabra, but we found the Rossmore sheep did well for us," he said.

Hand in hand with, growing sheep and wool was a strong family tradition with working dogs.

"My father won the first Murrurundi sheepdog trial with his black and tan kelpie, Lad, in 1912.

"My grandmother's brother was Jack Shanahan, who bred Shanahan's Lou and Shanahan's Ben. Both dogs were influential in the kelpie breed as foundation dogs," he said.

Mr Hunt was president of the Murrurundi dog trials committee for 41 years, while his wife Annette, whom he married in 1960, joined him on the committee as the head of catering. Their son Tim had a five-year stint as president, and grandson Tom has been president for five years as well.

Dogs of another kind, wild dogs, have also had a massive impact on the Hunt family's Merino flocks.

"Since 2006, 71 dogs have been destroyed on the property. In the last couple of weeks, we had (LLS trapper) Tim Booth from up near Armidale trap and kill 12 dogs. We've had tremendous losses to them this year."

Mr Hunt said the gazetting of the Camerons Gorge Nature Reserve and the Camerons Gorge State Conservation Area in November 1987 changed the face of wild dog incursions in the region between Murrurundi and Scone.

He said the park covers an area of nearly 1800ha, but it has been a nursery for the growing wild dog population.

"We'll have to get the trapped back here in the next few weeks as Tim (the trapper) heard dogs calling each other as he pulled out a week ago.

"He stays in the shearer's quarters and does a great job in getting the wild dogs," he said.