A more than 170-year-old woolshed just out of Camperdown is helping to ease the region's severe shearer shortage.
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It's seen seven generations of the Cole family through its time but today the woolshed at Bookaar's West Cloven Hills is also being used to train the next generation of south-west shearers and wool classers.
Mercy Regional College student and trainee Luke Bond said it was desperately needed.
"It's a dying industry," he said.
"It's a bit sad because shearing sheep and wool are two things which helped make Australia. There's lots of opportunities in the industry, it can take you all around the world if you wanted it to."
Mr Bond was one of a handful of students participating in classes run by Hamilton-based Rural Industry Skills Training (RIST) at the historic property.
Teacher Raelene Laidlaw, who has been in the industry for 35 years, said the holistic program exposed participants to all areas of wool.
"RIST was first established because there was a shortage of shearers and wool classers in the region," she said.
"There can be a perception that the shearing industry is not reliable because it's not necessarily a full time job, traditionally it wasn't.
"But now people shear all year round and are working full time and there are lots of different opportunities for our staff to actually travel and work.
"So sometimes (the barrier) is continuity of work, but for some people it's also perhaps longer hours because our work day is from 7.30am to 5.30pm.
"We get two hours of breaks in that time. There's a lot of travel that's involved as well, because you have to travel to the property to do the work. That can be a disadvantage for some people.
"While there's a shortage of skilled people, once you find them they're worth their weight in gold."
