Shearing staff take calm sheep handling course to the woolshed
This funding round and the last could train about 800 of the industry’s 2,500 to 3,000 workers.
|October 21, 2026Listen to the full interview:
Shearers and wool handlers can now complete an animal welfare and calm sheep handling course online or in the woolshed.
Elite Wool Industry Training director Tom Wilson says Australian partners helped develop the course after allegations about 18 months ago.
“It’s important that everybody knows or recognises these responsibilities before they go in and start shearing or handling animals,” he says.
He says this funding round and the last could train about 800 of the industry’s 2,500 to 3,000 workers.
He says shearing once drew on farmers’ children raised with stock.
“In the last quite a few years we’ve been losing that type of people from the industry, and we’ve been drawing on more urban workforce who have had no contact with farms or sheep or animals.”
Watch the full interview:
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