AustLit

Author's note: In the so-called good old days of the pack horses and blade shearers (or, as they are whimsically termed, 'Knights of the Bright Swords'), the 'Ringer' was by far the most picturesque figure of the outback. A well-bred horse and a high tally together with an unusual style of dress mark the 'Ringer' among his fellows as a superman. To-day the bladesman, pack horses and 'Ringers' have drifted back into the glorious yesterdays. When we hear our elders speak of them, we listen in eager anticipation of a grand old story of the past. In these times of motor transport and machine shearing, the 'Ringer' has his counterpart in the 'Gun'. The difference between the 'Ringer' and the 'Gun' lies in the fact that there could only be one 'Ringer' in a team of shearers, whereas there could quite easily be three or four 'Guns' battling for the lead at the one shearing shed. These 'Guns' are champion supershearers, and like the departed 'Ringer', they are much admired by their fellow-workmen. Who can help admiring a man who in the same time does with apparent ease and undoubted efficiency almost twice as much work as one does one-self? It was my privilege to learn to shear in a team led by Bob Sawallish, and in his good-humoured way he would ask me at the end of each long, weary day why it was that a youngster of my age could shear no more than a third of the number shorn by an old chap like him. 'Follow me,' he would say each morning, and ever in vain strove I to follow him.