Our series of excellent speakers continues! This time Jills Angus-Burney, a local barrister, gave us some wonderful insights into her lifelong passion for shearing and her travels and achievements along the road to achieving her goals.
Jills grew up as a “townie” in Feilding, She learned to shear at the age of 14 and had her first day shearing at 16. She always had a passion for shearing although she had a good education at school and university as well. She was inspired by a local champion shearer who travelled the world with his shearing.
Her shearing has taken her all over the world including Scotland, Wales, Australia and also America for one season. She was the first woman to win the New Zealand Merino shearing title when she was 25 and had only been shearing for six years. She started going to Australia in 1981 and spent about 15 years going over to Australia for the season.
Jills always wanted to achieve a world record for shearing. In the 1980’s she was surrounded by guys trying for the world record. In January 1989 Jills had a go at the individual solo women’s world record. About 18 months later she had another go a place near Taupo and became the first woman to shear over 600 lambs. She is also the only girl who has ever beaten David Fagan on crossbreeds! Jills always wanted to be able to shear all types and breeds of sheep.
A few years ago Jills attended a “Re-enactment” of a scene from Tom Roberts’ 1890 painting ‘Shearing the Rams” in a huge shearing shed on North Tuppal Station in the Riverina district of New South Wales. A video was made of the event which involved 72 blade shearers and was attended by approximately 15,000 people. (The usual number of shearers in most New Zealand sheds is about 5-10 shearers).
Jills’ talk was a fascinating example of what can be achieved by people who have a dream and the ablity to achieve the dream through passion and hard work. We came away with a very different idea of what a shearer can be!
Jills has packed a lot into her life, from working in the shearing sheds during the school holidays, and being a women’s record holder for 18 years in shearing, to holding a Masters in Law and practising as a sole Barrister.
Anyone who would like more information on our Probus Club and our various interest groups are very welcome to contact Margaret Griffiths on 306-8102.
