At 89 years of age, local wool classer Harold Thomas shows no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n
In fact, he\u2019s just renewed his wool classing licence for another three years.<\/p>\n
The Ararat Advocate caught up with Harold last week while he was wool classing in the sheds at John McDougall\u2019s property in Tatyoon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not really looking for work. I\u2019m doing it for my kids. My son Keith is a shearing contractor and he has trouble getting classers,\u201d Harold explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe (Keith) does classing but he\u2019s having trouble with his legs, he\u2019s shorn for years and his knees are buggered and he\u2019s having trouble standing up for a full day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a (wool classing) certificate and I was going to let it go but when he got crook I decided to renew it in case he needed help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou do these things for your kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harold admits he loves the wool industry where he has spent 70 years, including 40 as a wool classer.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m interested in wool. I\u2019ve been in the wool game for 70 odd years now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up with it and I\u2019ve always loved wool, we\u2019ve had our ups and downs but it has been pretty good to me over the years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While not wool classing full time, Harold admits he is kept reasonably busy.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just work when Keith needs a bit of help. About two weeks before this job I did another shed for him. It depends on when he needs a classer and can\u2019t get somebody. It might be in a fortnight it might be in three months, who knows.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not actually looking for work it is just to help Keith out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Harold said feel and sight are important attributes to wool classing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you look at the wool you\u2019ve got to be able to match it with your microns. You\u2019ve got to do a course to do it. Eyesight and feel is important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tatyoon farmer John McDougall said Harold is one of the best in the business.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarold is an extremely conscientious wool classer who takes his job very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a delight to have Harold working in the shed and I hope to see him back many times,\u201d Mr McDougall said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
At 89 years of age, local wool classer Harold Thomas shows no signs of slowing down.
\nIn fact, he\u2019s just renewed his wool classing licence for another three years.
\nThe Ararat Advocate caught up with Harold last week while he was wool classing in the sheds at John McDougall\u2019s property in Tatyoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/IMG_6370-3-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-eH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/911\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=911"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}