You are welcome to download WOLSELEY – The Walgett Collection
Published by Ian J. Itter - First published 2009
This publication was compiled from details gathered during and after the compilation of
the book entitled Fred Wolseley – A Man of Many Parts.
Copyright on this publication, is held by the Walgett Historical Society.

About Frederick York Wolseley

Frederick York Wolseley (1837 - 99) was the son of Major Garnet Joseph Wolseley and brother of Field - Marshall Lord Wolseley was born at Kingstown, Ireland on 16 March, 1837. In 1854 he emigrated to Australia and went to Thule, a Murray River Station in the Deniliquin area owned by his brother - in law.

Some years later he took over the management of several locations, and in that period he conceived the idea of a machine for shearing sheep. He began to experiment in1867 or 1868, and by 1872 had evolved a working model with which he removed at least part of the fleece from a sheep. On 1876 he purchased Euroka station, near Walgett. On 28 March 1877 he was granted his first patent - actually it was granted to Robert Savage and F. Y Wolseley, but nothing further was heard of Savage and it is not known what part he had in the invention.

In 1885 Wolseley purchased the rights in a horse - clipper invented by John Howard and engaged him to work on his Euroka station as a mechanic. Howard made several machines at Euroka and continued to experiment in the production of a better one. Wolseley formed a company to exploit his machine and gave demonstrations of its use. Following the adoption of improvements suggested by W.Ryley, a machine fundamentally the same as the modern shearing machine was developed. The first shed in Australia to carry out a complete shearing with machines was at Dunlop station, at Louth in New South Wales. Early in July 1888 work began on the shearing of 184,000 sheep with Wolseley’s machines. By the end of 1888 about 22 sheds had been equipped with shearing machines and the sucess of the invention was assurred.

Wolseley died in England early in 1899