Review of Ted Egan's "The Shearers"

In 1984, Ted Egan recorded his album "The Shearers" for the ABC's "Faces of Australia Series."

The Album revolves around the mythology of shearing, with Champion Shearer, Brian Morrison, relaying the AWUs legends around the shearing industry. The Cover Art features a painting of Jackie Howe, King of Shearers who shore the most sheep in one week with blade shearers. In the song of the same name, Brian relates that "the shearing industry legends often revolve around the top tally shearers, the guns." He also laments the weakness of the AWU in Western Australia, linking it to the Wide Comb Dispute which was unfolding at the time. He relays the AWU myth of 1891, comparing it to ANZAC Day; a defeat that defined a Nation.

As a Horticulturalist from Queensland, I tend to identify with the cane cutters a bit more personally. And I've used a cane knife on occasion in my work (videos featured elsewhere on this page). However, the cane cutters never really reached the same status as the shearers, partly due to the AWUs incessant focus on the shearers, and partly because the cane cutters where confined to QLD and northern NSW. Nonetheless, the "Big Book of Australian Folk Song," features its share of songs about cutting cane.

 

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