Alec Pack

As we dig into the Blast from the Past archives, little treasures fall out.

One such treasure is the following article about Mr Alec Pack. Fondly remembered by all who knew him, he was a kind and gentle soul.

Alec Pack was the youngest of eighteen children of Ah and Margaret Pack and was born on the same block where he now lives in Macauley Street.

He tragically lost both parents before he turned six.

His mother died shortly after giving birth to his brother Eric, and his father passed not long after.

Alec was raised by his family, and remembers the loving time of being part of a large family unit.

Alec’s parents, Ah and Margaret Pack were some of the earliest settlers in the Hay district

Ah was a gardener at Til Til, situated between Balranald and Ivanhoe. He used to travel into Hay, hawking kis vegetables.

Alec attended Hay Public School, but as was common in those times, he finished his schooling at age 13, after gaining employment as a groom with John Rees at Daisy Plains.

“It was like living at home,” Alec recalled. “One of my older sisters, Kathleen also worked there.”

It was at Daisy Plains that Alec first had experience shearing.

“Mr Rees needed a couple of rams shorn before joining, so I had a go with the blades,” Alec said.

“I cut them ragged, so I made the decision then and there that shearing was not my go. Mr Rees agreed.”

However, it did not deter him from getting into the ‘game’, and he went shearing in 1945. He started of with contractor O.J. Smith before joining up with Ray Congdon’s team a year later.

“We worked some pretty big sheds. Tupra was as big as anything around in those days, plain and basic, with as many as sixteen shearers on the go. It was a huge shed, with plenty of work.’

He remained in the shearing industry until 1955, before he had, as he described, burnt himself out, and intended to give it away.

He returned to Daisy plains, and stayed there another 15 years.

“I had no intention of going back shearing again, but around 1970 I felt I had come good again, and was talked into going back.

“I freelanced, and had plenty of work. I used to average about 160 to 170 a day. The best I shore a day was 228, and that was using narrow gear. About 20 years later, I shore the same number at Kooba Station using the wide combs.

The Pack Family is a large, well known family in town, with descendants still residents of Hay today. Image: The Riverine Grazier.

“I never understood the opposition to the wider combs, they made shearing a lot easier. You know, I was always a union man. The union made the job a lot safer and more comfortable for shearers. When I first started out, we were given two chaff bags, which we had to fill with straw to use for mattresses. It is a lot different now. The hard work and sacrifices for conditions that have been made by shearers, even before my time, have paved the way for better conditions the current shearers now enjoy.”

Alec said he enjoyed shearing, and the fact that he enjoyed the work made it easy for him to stay in the industry for so long.

“I never tried to chase the shearer I knew I could not beat,” he said.” I just poked along at my own pace, and it wasn’t too hard. I remember working one time with the late Pat Kelly, and he told me a fellow shearer a fellow shearer, by the name of Gordon Nash, had expressed concern to Pat that I was taking him on, ad then Pat would drop back, and I wouldn’t try to beat on, and beat him. I always aimed at shearing my average.”

He said he wouldn't like to be in the game now.

“Too much weekend work,” Alec said. “In my time you could earn enough working Monday to Friday. The cost of combs and cutters these days makes it a pretty expensive trade. I remember buying two dozen cutters for eight quid. Nowadays, I believe they are about six or seven dollars each. And a comb costs $35.”

Alec estimates that he has shorn almost 200,000 sheep in his expansive career. He retired in 1987, after the death of his son Andrew, and now spends his time at home, enjoying the company of his wife Isabelle, their family and grandchildren.

Alec has a well earned reputation for being a good, hard working shearer, a team man who always pulled his weight.

He is a credit to the shearing industry, and a credit to his strong work ethic.