THE MAD 8 -

In 1923 a group of gun (expert) shearers was put together as a team to see how well they could perform. When working at Williambury Station they sheared 9167 sheep in a 40 hour working week, a world record that we believe may never have been broken.

The Mad 8 was made up of Nugget Williams, Bob Sawallish, Vol Day, George Bence, Tiny Leaman, Len Saltmarsh, Charlie Fleming and Hughie Munroe. Usually shearers formed a team that stuck together for a season or more. In this case the men had not worked as a team prior to this event but they were all such experts that they set an amazing record.

They were using narrow combs as well which means the work was even harder than it would be today.

During the second week this team clipped 8770 sheep even though there was a mechanical breakdown of an engine.

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