In Jerramungup, a town 450 kilometres southeast of Perth, local shearing contractor Dael Parnell is spending time coaching junior netball players instead of working in the shearing sheds. Ms Parnell, who also works as a wool classer, volunteers by coaching the 'Net,Set,Go' program for children aged 6 to 9, teaching them netball fundamentals.
This community involvement is part of a broader effort by shearing contractors in regional Western Australia to support their teams amid changing industry demands. Almost 100 shearing shed workers across the region have enrolled in a new training initiative aimed at equipping contractors and their teams with skills for alternative employment opportunities.
"A group of contractors sat down and came up with this program; they were trying to be as proactive as they could be," said Ms Davey, a representative involved in the program. The training focuses on areas with identified skill gaps, including seeding work, barista skills, and tree planting.
Ms Parnell employs between 10 to 20 workers at a time, who earn and spend their money locally. She noted that some workers were initially hesitant to participate in the training, as many have been shearing for over 30 years and lack confidence in learning new skills. "A lot of my staff have never been in this position; shearing has always been there, and they don't have the confidence to try something else," she said.
The need for such a program has grown as downtime in the shearing industry has increased significantly. Ms Parnell explained, "Twenty-one years ago, when I started in the industry, we had four weeks a year as our downtime; now we have four months that we don't have any shearing, so we need to find work for our employees to fill that."
This initiative reflects efforts by regional shearing teams to diversify their skill sets and income sources in response to evolving industry conditions.
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