National Trust Open Day at Yarralumla Woolshed

The National Trust Open Day event has become a much anticipated part of the annual ACT Heritage Festival. This year's event took place on Saturday 20th April at the old Yarralumla Woolshed, just down the road from the Governor General's residence. In fact the woolshed was built in 1904 as part of the Campbell estate as was the Yarralumla homestead that the G.G. now calls home.

Volunteers from the Centre set up an impressive display featuring information about:

• Fred Young - who designed and built the woolshed; and
• Henry 'Babe' Curran from 'Deasland' in Ginninderra who built up a world class bloodline of merino sheep that set world and Australian records for the quality of its clip.

A feature of the day was the shearing demonstration by local 'gun' shearer Ian Elkins who used both mechanical and hand shears. Mick De Britt, another Hall local, and Jane Southwell were demonstrating the essentials of 'classing ' the wool and explaining the differences between various types of wool on display.