Shearer’s Quarters Accommodation

On my outback trip of Spring 2007, I spent several nights in the shearer’s quarters on Pernatty Station.

The shearer’s quarters at Gum Woolshed.

Station owner, Colin French, was very generous toward me, not only with the accommodation but also with much helpful advice about finding my way around such a vast property.

Accommodation for several nights while traveling on Pernatty Station

Gum Woolshed is about five kilometres from Pernatty Homestead, across Whittata Creek and is quite a complex, with the shearer’s quarters about 300 metres away and the toots between them.

The Bunkhouse
Rather like motel rooms, only a bit rougher and not so well maintained, the building has 10 rooms, back to back in a double row, with the shearer’s lounge room at one end. Well, I call it the lounge room because it has an open fireplace and a couple of tables with bench seats and looks like the place for a chat after work.

The gas stove is more convenient but using the wood stove takes one back to the good old days.

The rooms are OK. Private rooms, the beds having either a tube or angle iron frame and wire base, mostly a bit stretched and sagging. With my foam mattress on top of the one already on the bed, and my sleeping bag, it was fine and sure beat being in the tent in the gusting wind that blew incessantly for days and nights on end.

The Kitchen
A full on kitchen that would easily accommodate the shearer’s cook, preparing meals for 10 or a dozen men.

Plenty of food preparation space for the shearer’s cook.

A large wood stove is the centre piece of the cooking area. It’s seen better days but served me well to cook up a couple of feeds. For some reason the flue had been removed from the stone chimney, but once I found enough sections to get the smoke going up instead of out, things were a lot better.

For some fire wood I went down to the creek on the bike and carried what I could on the rear rack, holding it with one hand.

Long meal tables and bench seats for a hungry team of shearers.

There are also a couple of fridges, a gas stove, two cook’s benches, the tops covered with lino, a sink and a fly wire cupboard containing crockery and cutlery.

On the wood stove is a stainless steel urn, but a kettle held all the water I needed.

Off to one side of the main kitchen is the pantry with a couple more kerosene fridges. Fly wire cupboards and shelves are full of pots and pans. Several empty polystyrene fruit boxes must have contained the veggies from the past shearing season.

The large pantry has a cupboard and shelves for pots and pans. Storage space for veggies and two fridges for mutton.

Off to the other side of the kitchen is the spacious dining area with two long tables and bench seats. A couple more kerosene fridges line the walls and a girlie calendar hangs where it can't be missed.

Mashed pumpkin and potatoes with canned steak and veggies plus small cans of corn and two beans. I ate well. Toast made on the gas stove, with my wife's home made, prize winning, raspberry jam.

The cook house with kitchen, pantry and mess room.

The Wash House
Two rooms. One houses the donkey, which I didn’t bother lighting, the wash trough and the wash basin. Concrete floor and plenty of ventilation.

Although it was still early spring, the afternoons were well and truly warm enough for a cold shower in the rudimentary shower facilities. No shampoo, of course, but a bit of a scrub with some soap and I cleaned up all right before a meal at the homestead. Better than showering with the billy out of a cattle trough, as I often have done.

A trusty generator in a trailer, out in the weather in front of the generator shed.

The Generator Shed
When the shearers are in the shearer’s quarters, the diesel generator provides power for the lights and an electric fridge. Maybe the shearer’s cook brings his own electric kitchen appliances.

I think the generator that works is the one in a trailer, out in the weather, in front of the open fronted shed. At least, it’s the one that looks the closest to being wired up to the switchboard. There are three others in the shed. I guess they wear out a few motors and generators in this country where you make your own electricity.

Brush meet room. Don’t think it’s used anymore.

The Toots
Well, apart from saying that they are flush toilets, I won’t go into it.

Staying at the shearer’s quarters was a great experience. I really enjoyed being there. A chance to live as others, who make the outback pastoral stations run; a chance to walk in their shoes, if only for a few days. Yes, I daydreamed of life as a shearer’s cook. I reckon it would be a hard life.