Picture book "Shearer" shares Jackie Howe's story

The picture book, entitled Shearer shares the story of the famed shearer, who shore a record 321 sheep by hand in under eight hours in 1892 at Alice Downs near Blackall in western Queensland.

Ms McMullin grew up on a property named Carin outside of Hamilton, Victoria, where her grandfather Ronald Bade ran fine Merino sheep, buying his rams from Begg family at Nareeb Nareeb near Glenthompson.

Her father John Bade later took over the farm, also working as a livestock agent.

Ms McMullin's childhood memories of time around the shearing shed weren't far from her mind as she wrote Shearer.

"The feel of the greasy wool, the smell of it, the buzz, the excitement, smoko, I love all of that," she said.

"A lot has changed, but there's no other way of shearing a sheep, you've got to bend over whether it's a mechanised handpiece or hand blades, you've still got to get that wool off.

"There's a lot of skill involved."

Ms McMullin said in putting the story together she had many conversations with the late Barry Muir, a Blackall resident and former mayor who married Howe's granddaughter Jenny and wrote a book about the iconic shearer.

"He was a great man of history and community, so he was really my primary source," she said.

"There's lots of fascinating things in the State Library of Queensland but I really got to clarify a lot of things with Barry.

"When I was reading about Jack, there were all sorts of things about this competition they had at Alice Downs station for the greatest shearer in the colonies... while he was shearing people were jumping on his back and tickling him, swapping sheep out of his pens and there were all sorts of shenanigans going on.

"It just sounded comedic, a bit too good to be true, a story for kids... it came very easily [ to write]."

Now dividing her time between Port Fairy and Melbourne, Ms McMullin said she wrote the story four years ago and she hoped it would appeal to city and country children alike.

"My illustrator had a lot of fun illustrating it because it was a rollicking story, it moved pretty quickly," she said.

"You've got the competition among the other shearers... he was obviously a fine athlete and that's why he was such a good shearer.

"They describe him as having hands the size of tennis rackets, legs like tree trunk and wrists made of steel... he was 5 foot 10 (177cm), his chest measurement was 120cm, biceps were 44cm and his weight was variously given between 15 to 18 stone (95 to 114 kilograms) so he was a big man.

"Around some of the shows in the area he used to compete in different events, he reportedly won a 100 yard sprint on grass in his socks in 11 seconds... and he also at an event at Warwick won an Irish jig and sailor hornpipe dancing competition.

"It's all fascinating."

It's not the first time that Ms McMullin has been inspired by legends of the bush, with one of her previous books Drover, telling the story of drover Edna Jessop, nee Zigenbine, who made headlines when she drove 1600 head of cattle from Western Australia to Queensland as a young woman in 1950.

"My grandfather on my other side was a drover, so it's interesting how we are shaped by our environments," Ms McMullin said.