Shear Outback was officially opened on Australia Day, Saturday 26th January, 2002.

The official opening was carried out by Kay Hull, the Federal Member for Riverina.

There were an estimated 3,000 people in attendance for the opening ceremony.

An easy-to-read transcript of this article appears below the picture.

Transcript

Captions

THE INTERNAL construction of the Exhibition area of the Museum and Shearers’ Hall of Fame was in the hands of Classic Resources of Melbourne. Pictured are Daniel Harris and Gerard Coffey who completed the work. The Koertz woolpress is one of the large static exhibits in the museum.

THE VOLUNTEERS for Shear Outback have done a marvellous job for the project, running two shops, raffles, and being on hand to help at every bun-fight held since 1997. At times theirs was a thankless task but their spirits never flagged. The voluntary hours put into this project by the people of Hay are impossible to add up. The support of those wonderful people was acknowledged at a morning tea in the ‘Murray Downs’ woolshed, during the visit in 2001 by former Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer and Member for Riverina Kay Hull, pictured above with the many volunteers.

 THE AKUBRA hat long associated with Tim Fischer had to be exchanged for a hard-hat during his 2001 visit to shear Outback with local Member Kay Hull. They are pictured with Shear Outback Directors Cecil Kem, Roly Desailly, and Geoff Chapman in the Exhibition area.

THE LATEST technology has been used extensively on the Shear Outback site including satellite communications.

To avoid a mistake commonly made in the past on building sites concerning the location of water and underground cables the complete site has been mapped using the Global Positions System which is accurate to one or two centimetres.

The work was carried out by Matt McKenzie of Booth Associates, Hay who is pictured with the plotting machine prior to mapping the area.

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Extracts reproduced with permission from The Riverine Grazier