Australian Farmer My Story

This story belongs to Harry

and his paba, John.

It's a tiny tale about Paba John's life,

and the things he used to do.

Harry is helping Paba John feed the chickens on his farm.

Throw it down there a bit more, Harry.

A bit more feed for the chooks.

They live in Australia, where chickens are often called chooks.

You watch out how they come onto the feed. Look at that.

Now it's time for Paba John to share his memories

and take Harry on a journey of discovery.

Australia is a huge country on the other side of the world.

Farming has been an important part of Australian life

for a very long time.

More than half of the land in the whole of Australia is farmland,

and some of the farms are very, very large, with many, many animals.

The biggest farms in Australia are much bigger than the biggest

farms here in the United Kingdom.

There are lots of animals on Paba John's farm, too.

SHEEP BAA

How many sheep are there on the farm?

There's 1,600 of these, and we've got 10,000.

-10,000!?

-Yes.

-Wow, that's a lot.

-You think you could count them?

One, two, three, four, five...

Oh, you were sending me to sleep, Harry.

You were counting sheep so well.

How many cows do you think we've got?

-Um... One million and a thousand?

-Not quite.

We've only got 1,600 cows.

That's still a lot of cows!

And do you know what cows sound like?

Er...

MOO!

A bit louder. They can't hear you.

BOTH: MOO!

COW MOOS

I think she heard you that time, Harry!

Lots of people from here in the United Kingdom have gone to live

in Australia over the years, often on great big boats like this one.

But how did Paba John come to live in Australia?

Well, Harry, I haven't always been a farmer in Australia.

I was born in Derbyshire in England.

Here are some old pictures of Paba John as a little boy.

He used to enjoy going to the seaside on holiday.

That's him in Llandudno, in Wales, with his mummy, Hetty,

who was Harry's great grandma. Hetty loved to sing, and so did Paba John.

He sang in the choir at school, and even at Derby Cathedral.

When Paba John left school, he became a sea cadet.

I sailed in lots of very big ships all around the world.

And I sailed across to Australia, as well.

That's where I met your grandmother, Annie, and we got married.

And then we bought a farm. We bought the farm from Annie's parents.

But I had to learn to become a farmer,

same as you're learning at school, Harry, and I realised

that I really loved farming, and we've been here ever since.

And then Harry and Paba John went for a walk to talk

some more about the farm before it belonged to their family.

This farm was started many, many years ago,

because there was a good, big creek

and it grew a lot of grass around here, and the early farmers could

put their animals here and knew they were going to have something to eat.

A creek, of course, Harry, is just another name for a river or a brook.

Australia is one of the driest places in the world.

Much drier than in the UK.

Lots of Australia is desert, like this.

Sometimes, there isn't enough rain, so creeks like Paba John's dry up.

That makes things difficult for farmers like him,

because they need water to grow grass to feed their cows and sheep.

Let's go and meet another member of Harry's family.

This is my Auntie Kate,

and we're going to watch Paba on his motorbike.

Yay!

HARRY SQUEALS

-BOTH:

-Weee!

Ungh.

-Mwah.

-Aw!

Oh, look! There's Paba John there!

I wonder what he's doing.

Now, Paba's about to start mustering.

-Do you know what mustering is?

-No.

It's when Paba moves the cattle on his motorbike.

We would call this "herding" in the UK.

ENGINE WHIRS

In the olden days,

Australian farmers didn't use motorbikes to muster their cattle

and sheep, they used horses, like the ones in this old film.

And some farmers still do this today.

Dogs have also been used to muster sheep for a very long time.

Dogs run over the backs of the sheep and help move them along.

Don't worry, it doesn't hurt them.

One of the reasons why farmers keep sheep

is because they can sell the sheep's lovely, soft wool.

These sheep are going into the wool shed to have their woolly

coats cut off.

It's a bit like going to the hairdresser's!

DOG BARKS

Sheep have been getting their hair cut in this wool shed

for a very long time.

This is what the wool shed looked like many years ago.

Well, Harry, here we are in the wool shed.

This is where all the sheep get shorn.

There's ten stands down here, but we only use about six of them

nowadays cos we can shear the sheep a lot quicker.

All the sheep are in here, there's about 1,000 sheep there,

-and they all get shorn in a day.

-One day?!

One day?!

-That's a surprise, isn't it? Oh, and here's Darren.

-Hello, Harry.

-Hello.

Darren's going to shear a few sheep for us today and show us

how to do it. He's a top shearer.

Darren might be able to show us the old gear

that we used to use in the good old days.

These are like big scissors,

and it used to take a lot longer to shear sheep with those.

Harry mustn't touch those. They look really sharp.

And then they got the narrow hand piece with the narrow combs.

And then they...

..got to these ones, which are a bit wider.

Here's a film of a man using old-fashioned shears

a long time ago. They're a lot like scissors, aren't they?

But look how much quicker it is for these men to shear their sheep

using the old type of electric shears.

In Australia, there are competitions between sheep shearers to see

who can shear the most sheep in the fastest time.

Well, it looks like Darren could win a prize for fast shearing.

This is only the second time that this sheep has had its woolly coat,

called a fleece, cut off.

I wonder if it feels a bit tickly.

That looks really soft and snugly, doesn't it?

Once the fleece is taken off the sheep, it's sorted and bundled up

for sale, just like people have been doing for a very long time.

Look, Here's an old picture of a wool cart on Paba John's farm

being loaded up with wool for market.

What's all that wool used for?

Maybe Harry knows.

Harry? What do you think we can make out of wool?

-A hat!

-Ah, terrific! See if you can find something else.

OK.

OK, Harry, what else have you found?

-A scarf!

-That's good, Harry. That's a thick one. Now, off you go.

See if you can find something else.

-What have you found?

-Socks!

-Socks!

They're really woolly socks, aren't they?

And they're just some of the things you can make from wool. That's great.

Now Paba John has a really fun job for Harry to do on the farm.

Now, this is a very important job, to feed these lambs, because they're

not getting enough food on their own in the paddock,

so we feed them every day with a bottle of milk.

In fact, they get two bottles of milk some days. Look at him!

Look at him, wagging his tail and everything.

See his tummy swelling up?

-Yep.

-That's pretty good, isn't it?

-Mm-hmm.

What a hungry little lamb!

Sometimes other baby animals need some extra milk too.

Look.

Here's an old picture of Paba John feeding milk to a baby cow,

with Harry's auntie, Abby.

Look, he's nearly finished it. Look!

Look at that! See, it's gone. All gone. All gone.

-We have no more.

-No more.

Oh, feeding lambs looks like a lovely job.

Paba John has another treat in store for Harry,

a visit to the Royal Melbourne Show.

Look at this old film.

The Royal Melbourne Show is a special event that's

been taking place once a year for a very long time.

It's changed a lot over the years, but farmers still bring

their best animals to the show, and lots of people come to look at them.

The farmers all hope that their animals will be named Best In Show.

And win a lovely ribbon as a prize.

Paba John won a prize here a few years ago,

for looking after his farm so well.

You remember the piggy?

-Wow, look at the pig, Harry.

-That is very big.

Yeah, it's a big mummy pig.

That's what they call a sow, and they have lots of little piglets.

-Lots?

-Probably about 12.

-12?!

-Yes! Probably about 12.

-Whoa.

They're little baby ducks. There's brown ones and yellow ones.

See, look at that one. He's going on his own. See, look. Look at them.

-Funny, aren't they?

-Uh-huh.

-Aren't they great?

They're about three days old.

-Three days old?

-Yes!

They're cute, aren't they?

Here we are, Harry, in the animal nursery at the show,

-and look at these goats.

-They're very soft.

-They are.

# You're a beautiful goat

# You're a beautiful goat

# You're a beautiful goat. #

-He's very hungry, isn't he?

-Yes, he is very hungry.

Look at him!

-He's eating all of it!

-Yeah.

He is, isn't he?

What a busy day it's been. It's time to head back to the farm.

Harry, I've really enjoyed spending time with you and you learning

all about what happens on a farm, with sheep and cattle.

Now, Harry, can you remember all the fun things we did together?

We counted the sheep and mooed at the cattle.

COW MOOS

We saw the sheep getting a haircut.

I saw Paba muster the cows.

We fed the little lambs.

We had lots of fun at the farming show.

And Harry, what did you enjoy doing the most?

Feeding the lamb.

Feeding the lamb? That's very good.

-Well, Harry, did you have lots of fun?

-Yes.

-You did?

Harry, how about a nice, big hug?

What a fabulous heap of fun.

That was Harry and Paba John's tiny tale of the things that

Paba John used to do.

Now Paba John has shared his story with Harry,

it's time for Harry to start his own story.

Do you know someone with a story to share?