Frederick York Wolseley

Frederick York Wolseley, inventor of the first commercially successful sheep-shearing machine, was owner of Euroka Station, near Walgett. Born in Kingstown, County Dublin, Ireland in 1837, Wolseley arrived in Australia in 1854 and managed his brother-in-law’s stations on the Murray River.

By the late 1860s he was experimenting with mechanical shearing, convinced that a machine could improve on the hand shears that had dominated the industry.

In 1876 Wolseley purchased Euroka, about 10 miles from Walgett, and continued developing his invention there. Early prototypes were built in the station’s blacksmith shop by local shearer and bushworker Jack Gray, later to be the first man to remove an entire fleece with a machine (albeit with many stops and starts). Trials at Euroka in the 1880s, witnessed by local pastoralists, showed the machine’s ability to cut wool evenly and cleanly, avoiding the nicks and cuts common with old-fashioned blades. While initially slower than expert hand shearers, the mechanical process yielded more wool per head and reduced strain on the operator.

Wolseley’s work at Euroka led to patents and, eventually, the establishment of the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company. His invention revolutionised wool harvesting in Australia and overseas, although he saw minimal profit from it. He left the district in the late 1880s, returning to England where he battled cancer for many years before passing away in January 1899. He is buried at Beckenham Cemetery, Bromley, London.

• Frederick York Wolseley @ Wikipedia.

• Frederick York Wolseley @ Australian Dictionary of Biography.

• Frederick York Wolseley @ Find a Grave.

Article: Research by Russell Gawthorpe and Leisa Carney, edited by Russell Gawthorpe. LRHS research compiled by Len Cram and Barbara Moritz. Sources: Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 6, 1976; ‘Wolseley’s Sheep-Shearing Machine’, The Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 30 April 1887, p. 903; ‘First Shearing Machine’, Gilgandra Weekly, 17 June 1948, p. 4; ‘Trial of Wolseley’s Shearing Machine’, Euroa Advertiser, 10 December 1886, p. 2; ‘The Romance of Machine Shearing’, The Pastoral Times, 6 September 1932, p. 3; ‘How Shearing Came To Be’, Western Magazine, 5 March 1973, p. 6; ‘Veteran A. W. U. Stalwart Passes’, The Australian Worker, 2 December 1936, p. 19.