Winton - a day to remember....

WALTZING MATILDA CENTRE
The centre starts with an animated presentation where you "pull up a stump" by the waters edge, in the "Billabong" where the ghost explains the poem and what it has come to mean to many Australians. It was a great presentation - the kids thoroughly enjoyed it and it made Chris and I feel very patriotic.

Jack enjoyed the presentation the most becase they had previously discussed the poem "Waltzing Matilda" at school and learnt some of it - so it made a lot more sense to him. The rest of the centre was static displays about shearers, swagmans and equipment and items they used yeas ago and was a self-guided tour through the centre.

THE DRAGS
Now this was what the boys had been waiting all morning for! The locals had told us that it is usually a pretty good event - so we were keen to go out and smell some burning rubber....!! As soon as we walked in, Logan had found his favourite drag car - surprise, surprise - a green one. All the kids enjoyed the drags, but Logan especially enjoyed it - the Meerkat was back!

We were really surprised at the variety of cars entered into the drags - it had everything from proper drag cars, 12 year old girls in the small top end fuellers, to a Prado and an F250. Anyone could enter their private car. The kids had also spotted a simulator ride while we were walking around and were really keen to have a go - so Chris and the two boys went on. Lexie and I waited outside to see how the boys enjoyed it and they came out laughing and said they had a great time.

After the drags - it was back to the van for a quick shower, change and dinner and then across the road to the Australian Hotel for the Quick Shears Competition.

QUICK SHEARS COMPETITION

Now this was what Chris and I had been looking forward to - I know it sounds crazy, but neither of us had seen a sheep being sheared (except on TV) and were keen to see them do it. We didn't really know what to expect because we were just told it was "out the back of the pub" - so who knew? It didn't look too bad when we first walked in - with a stage and chairs set up - but when you looked closer and saw that the stage was only set up on a couple of 44 gallon drums you did start to wonder.

Two shearers sheared at once and their times were recorded. There was also a standard that had to be met, eg no blood on the sheep, if it wasn't met then they would be disqualified. There were two categories for the night - amateur and open. The best times in each category went through to the finals.

We were amazed at how fast they can shear - most of these guys will shear between 250-300 sheep a day. The shearer who won the night sheared his sheep in 29 seconds - and man that is fast! After the competition they had a "Winton vs The World" event - or in other words shearers from Winton against shearers from other towns in the area. It was really exciting - there were 4 shearers in each team and they had to shear 2 sheep each before passing on to the next shearer.

Winton took the lead early with the crowd cheering loudly - they changed over shearers and were still leading - onto the third shearer and they were still leading - by this stage wool was going everywhere! The last shearer on the "World" team was very fast, and last years winner and caught up to the Winton team quickly. It was neck and neck then - with Winton winning in the end - the crowd erupted with plenty of cheering and whistling.