12/11/2022
A family group of shearers have smashed the eight-hour, three-stand merino lamb world record in a packed shed near Cranbrook.
Brothers Lou and Jim Brown alongside their cousin Imran Sullivan took on the three-stand challenge at Bellavista Farm on Saturday and passed the test with flying colours.
On Saturday, the trio — originally from Napier, New Zealand — set a cracking pace early on.
By the end of the third of four runs, they were only four sheep away from equalling the world record.
After beating it shortly into their fourth run, the team pushed through to the end of the challenge, shearing a total of of 1603 lambs over eight hours.
The day’s soundtrack of blasting hip-hop music gave way to cheers from the crowd which had packed the shearing shed as the trio worked through their last lambs in the final minutes.
When their shearing marathon finally ended, they were mobbed by friends and family keen to celebrate the achievement.
They smashed the previous three-stand world record of 1208, set in 2003 by a South African team, beating it by 395 lambs.
By the end of the challenge, Jim had shorn 493 lambs, while Lou and Sullivan had shorn a total of 555 lambs — just 49 short of the individual world record of 604.
The new world record adds another title to Lou’s collection, after he set a solo world record for merino ewes in 2019, shearing 497 in eight hours in a shed in Kojonup.
Saturday’s world record attempt was guided by the New Zealand-based World Shearing Records Society, which ensures all world record attempts are fair to past and present shearers, as well as the sheep.
Referees for each World Shearing Records Society attempt include one New Zealand representative and three to four Australians.
After are gruelling eight hours of shearing and well-earned shower, the trio were presented with official certificates by one of the referees.
Addressing the crowd, all three men thanked their families, organisers and sponsors.
Lou spoke about what it meant to him to set a new world record alongside his brother and cousin.
“It was all a dream, it was a good dream and we got it done,” he said.
“It was on the bucket list and we’ve ticked it off.
“I’m just proud of these two guys. Far out, it was unreal.”
He thanked the crowd of friends and relatives, some of whom had travelled from interstate and overseas to be there.
“I could feel the love and that’s what got us through,” he said.
“Thanks for getting us over the line.”
Several members of the crowd performed a haka in an emotionally charged send off.
The new world record comes amid a flurry of shearing world record attempts around WA.
Another gun WA shearer, Koen Black, set a new eight-hour merino lamb world record in Boyup Brook on October 27.
Black sheared 604 lambs, breaking his brother Dwayne’s record of 570 set at Badgingarra in 2002.
This Sunday 13th November, Boyup Brook’s Floyde Neil will attempt to break the eight-hour crossbred lamb shearing world record in Kojonup.
By the end of the third run, they were only four sheep away from meeting the world record.
