Sheep shearing contest pulls crowds to southeast NSW

Turning now to the New South Wales Snowy Mountains and a very popular sheep shearing competition is underway in the town of Bombala.

Transcript

00:00 I'm here in the town of Bombala in the snowy Monaro and Australia Day festivities are in

00:08 full force.

00:09 It's a lovely cool day and hundreds of people are here in Bombala today celebrating.

00:15 But without a doubt the event that's drawing the most attention is the sheep shearing competition.

00:20 Over 20 competitors are taking part in the sheep shearing competition.

00:23 It's the 51st time the event has taken place and there's people competing with varying

00:30 levels of experience.

00:31 Some just starting out, some with over 5-10 years experience.

00:34 But I've been told some people, some veteran shearers with over 30 years experience shearing

00:40 sheep are set to be coming out of retirement to take part in today's activity.

00:45 Not only that, in Bombala today there's a number of other events taking place including

00:49 an art competition inside the hall behind me.

00:52 There's a sausage making competition, there's a fishing competition and there's even a triathlon

00:57 happening down the road.

00:58 So it's all happening.

00:59 But without a doubt the biggest spectacle being drawn here today is the sheep shearing competition.

01:04 I caught up with a few people who have taken part and a few visitors.

01:07 Here's what they had to say.

01:09 It's great, yeah.

01:10 There's a lot of work put in by the committee for the day and it's good to see people come

01:14 and enjoy themselves.

01:15 A big crowd.

01:16 We were a bit worried today because we thought with the long weekend and the weather we might

01:20 not have got as many but we've got a good crowd here now.

01:23 It's just a good community event, good to support the community event as well.

01:26 The more shearers the better.

01:27 So it's a good day out though, catch up with everyone and yeah it's a good day.

01:32 Over 250 sheep are being shorn today in the competition.

01:37 Shearers have been going at it since 9.30 this morning and they won't be putting the

01:41 tools down until after 5pm tonight where the winners will be announced.

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