Tom Roberts painted The golden fleece — shearing at Newstead in the shearing shed at his friend Duncan Anderson's property in 1894. It is one of his two major paintings of shearers at work.
     In this picture Roberts depicts the masculine labour of the shearing shed, in the time before shearing machines.
 

Remarkably, the Newstead North shearing shed still stands, though it has not been used for shearing since a property amalgamation in the early 1980s. The shed was built in 1857, so it was already well-worn when Roberts painted the shearers working in it.
     The owners commissioned me in 1998 to advise on conserving the shed. John Jenkins, a skilled and versatile local carpenter, made the repairs that I recommended. This project is a fine example of doing as much as necessary but as little as possible.