IT has been 13 years since the rhythmic hum of the shearing stands have been heard across the paddocks of Preston, 70km south of Mungallala.
Drought, low wool prices and growing numbers of wild dogs have made running sheep a risky business in many parts of south-west Queensland.
However, with a change of ownership at Preston last year and a new exclusion fence to keep the dogs at bay, the old shearing shed has been forced back into action this week.
Brothers James and Fred Bryant were just two days into shearing their flock of 4500 Merinos when Queensland Country Life visited on Tuesday.
Their flock includes 2400 ewes, but they hope to eventually increase numbers at Preston to about 6000.
The flock is based on bloodlines from Peter and Linda Hacker's Muckadilla-based Roselea Merino Stud, with the Bryants aiming for a 19 to 20-micron wool clip.
All the ewes were trucked to Preston from Riverview, a property south of Charleville that the Bryant family now have on the market, while some extra wethers were purchased to boost stock numbers.
"It was always our plan to run sheep here on Preston.
Not even a heatwave could dampen the enthusiasm of the young brothers, who said it was their dream to again run a productive wool-growing business.
"We bought the place in July last year and we have been busy preparing for this week ever since," James said.
"It will be a big relief when the shearing is over.
"It was always our plan to run sheep here on Preston. We run cattle on our other property at Augathella, so running a sheep operation here will help us diversify a bit more.
"Our Dad was a big believer in that."
The 17,000-hectare property is now home to James, his wife Hannah and their young son Toby.
Fred and Emma Bryant live on the home property Wansey Downs, 20km west of Augathella, with their daughter Charlotte.
The boys' younger brother Harry and stepmother Jo Bryant are also involved in the family business.
The return to running a successful Merino operation at Preston will be a major milestone for the Bryant family, whose love of wool growing stretches back several generations.
The family was driven out of wool on Wansey Downs after years of battling plague numbers of wild dogs.
"Wansey Downs is 45,000 acres (18,210ha)and in the early 1990s, we were running 9000 sheep there," Fred said.
"We sold the last of them in 2012 when we trucked out 600 head.
"The rest were just slowly whittled away, largely by dogs."
The boys are pleased with how their first shearing has progressed so far and are aiming to pull off an estimated 100 bales of wool over the 10 days.
"The sheep aren't as stressed as they have been for the past couple of shearings at Riverview, where they were coming in pretty drought-stricken," Fred said.
"They are a lot more content this time."
The Bryants join their ewes from the start of December and usually take the rams out at shearing in early March.
They are hoping a complete exclusion fence will enable them to not only focus on wool production but also profit from the sale of their cast-for-age ewes and wethers.
They are also hoping the fence will significantly boost their lambing rates, which languished under the pressure of dogs and drought at Riverview.
"The rest were just slowly whittled away, largely by dogs."
"We were only getting 38 per cent at Riverview so if we could get up to 80pc lambing rates we'd be pretty happy," James said.
"We scanned a couple of times when we were running sheep at Wansey Downs to make sure we were not having a pest problem.
"One year we had a conception rate of 85pc, which didn't include the twins.
"That year our lamb-marking percentage was just 9pc so we knew we had a bit of a problem then."
Preston's location on the boundary of the Mungallala South Cluster Fence was a large part of the property's attraction for the Bryant brothers, who could see that fencing to keep wild dogs out would be paramount.
"That was our first job when we got here - to get the fence up," James said.
"We already had the cluster fence on our northern boundary and we also join another property on the east with a decent netting fence.
"So far we have done 22km along the south-east corner and we have got another 8km to do."
After a drought-stricken start to property ownership at Preston, the Bryants hope their fortunes are looking up.
Much of the property has received 150mm to 200mm since the start of the year, and James said the condition of the sheep had improved dramatically.
"Things are certainly looking a lot brighter but we'll have to see how it handles through winter."