IT'S not hard to imagine the chaos which had once erupted from the historic woolshed at Tuppal Station, Tocumwal.
The loud whirr of the shafting, the smell of lanoline and tar, wool pieces everywhere and hundreds of shearers, drafters, tar boys, wool handlers and classers - some wearing top hats - in addition to the support teams of bosses, cooks and hawkers all trying to get their job done at once.
Wool balers were putting their lives at risk with massive machinery and when the boss is on the board, there's no talking, and shed rules were strictly adhered to.
Now, the near-empty shed is used but once a year but still stands solidly as a reminder of Australia's early pastoral days.
The 145-year-old shed has a massive 72 shearing stands, and clocked up more than three million sheep in its first 10 years, but it is still one of the largest and best designed sheds in Australia.
Click here to view a slideshow of photos from Tuppal's shearing shed.
The famous woolshed, now part of North Tuppal, is an icon of the Riverina not only for its size but because it was the first shearing shed in Australia to move away from blade shearing by installing shearing machines.
Original parts of the shed were built around 1864, but the large shearing board and massive yards were added in 1900, but it is still used for an annual shearing by North Tuppal Station owner and Merino breeder, Bruce Atkinson.
Mr Atkinson said that design of the shed was ahead of its time, and everything was made for the smoothest running of the shed as possible.
The 72 stands were set up with 44 stands on one side, two groups of 14 on the other and the wool race in between.
This meant that, in spite of the woolshed's massive size, no fleece had to be carried more than 25 metres to ensure more careful handling of the wool.
However, it also enabled the boss of the board to tell at a glance what every one in the shed was doing.
Shearers were also expected to handle the wool carefully, and shearing stands were placed 1.8 metres apart (six feet) instead of the usual 1.5 metres (5 feet).
Other unique features include the walls of the shearing board were boarded right up to the shafting, so sheep had no view of the machinery or movements on the board, double catching pen doors which swung both ways, and excellent light and ventilation.
With a shoot from each shearing stand, some sheep were forced to jump over the belt of the steam engine to get to holding yards.
The shed was just completed in time for the new Wolseley shearing machines to be installed, which along with its design showed a marked advance over most sheds of the time.
The machines were installed personally by shearer, manufacturer and inventor, Jim Davidson, he was one of the 40 shearers who completed the first entire machine shearing of a flock with the machines at Dunlop station, Louth, in 1888.
In a 1928 Sydney Mail, Mr Davidson wrote: "Tuppal was a popular shed for roll-call not just because shearing conditions were better than usual, or quarters were more comfortable, but because everything connected with the shearing seemed to go with a snap from start to finish."
He credits the clockwork running of the shed to the 1832 to 1914 owner, Franc S. Falkiner, who made Tuppal as one of the leading sheep stations in Australia. Bought in 1896 to 1914 or 15
During the drought year of 1902, it is said that Mr Falkiner was running between 150,000 and 200,000 sheep, and some 207,515 sheep were shorn which yielded 3244 bales of wool.
So efficient was the organisation of the shed that after cutting out a mob of sheep it was said that the whole board could be working again in four minutes.
In addition, when the shed cut out, it was not uncommon for the shearers and shed hands to be paid off within two hours of the last sheep being shorn, and for the last bale of wool to be on its way to the railhead at Tocumwal the next day.
Bales of wool were carted to nearby Tocumwal by bullock and horse teams to be put on the paddle steamers to Echuca, then by rail to Melbourne.
After the railway started at Tocumwal, bales were taken by rail from Tocumwal to Melbourne.
Mr Atkinson said it was his great uncle who modified the original hand-operated wool press to be electrified in the 1930s.
Two of the most staggering statistics which indicate the size of the shed is that it can house up to 5000 sheep undercover.
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