Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 227

WAGES OF MEN IN NEW ENGLAND FOR SHEARING & WASHING SHEEP AND FOR SHEPHERDING AND WATCHING, DURING THE YEARS 1843 -1848, 1849. 1850. 1851. 1853 & 1854. EFFECT OF THE WORKING OF THE GOLD FIELDS IN THE FLEECE DISTRICTS DURING THE FIRST YEAR OF THEIR WORKING.

iN 1843 Shearers were paid by the score for shearing sheep 2/3d, with a full ration, and 2/6d with a dry ration, a full ration being understood to be weekly for each man - ten pounds of flour, & ten pounds of meat, a quarter of a pound of tea, & two pounds of sugar; and a dry ration to be only ten pounds of flour, & ten pounds of meat, Men were paid this year each day for washing sheep & Shepherds were hired in New England in 1843 at £18 per annum & Watchmen at £15 -

Shearers are a Class of men who,as they term it, lay by for a part of the season before Shearing Commences; that is to say, Keep themselves disengaged in order that they may be at liberty to leave at the proper time during that season. They travel on horseback from the [indecipherable] under the Liverpool Range to the remote districts of Port Curtis Wide Bay &
Leichhardt Darling & Lower Condamine and Moreton [indecipherable] through those districts and return to New England in time for the shearing of the flocks in that district.

In 1848 Shearers were paid in New England by the score with a full ration at 2/3d and (with a dry ration) at 2/6. During this year men were paid for
washing Sheep at 3/- a day, with the usual ration, Shepherds were paid this year at the rate of £20
per annum, & watchmen at the rate of £18 per annum -

In 1850 Shearers were paid by the score 2/6 with a dry ration & 2/3 with a full ration & during this year washers were paid 3/6 with the Customary ration - during favourable seasons twelve good washers are Calculated to wash a flock of sheep say of twelve hundred in a day. Shepherds were hired in 1850 at £20 per annum and watchmen at
£18.

In 1857 Shearers were paid on [indecipherable]
Plains in New England, for shearing
sheep at two shillings & six pence the score, with a full ration & ten shillings & nine pence with a dry ration, & it is proper to remark that notwithstanding the Consequent drainage, of men to the gold mining districts & Contrary to the expectations of the flock owners & cattle graziers, there has been a Constant supply of men enquiring for work of any description & that no interruption has taken place in any of their establishments of the slightest Consequence to affect their interests or prosperity - On enquiring it will be found that many of the Shearers and washers have [ indecipherable] this season from Darling Downs through Gwyder Districts, avoiding the

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 227

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Volume 01: Production and resources of the northern and western districts of New South Wales, 1854 [ca. 1850-1857] - Page 227

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