The five O'Neill brothers, Mouse (Colin), Charlie, Kevin, Shaun and Jockey (John), each took a stand in the shed yesterday and worked their way through about 1000 merino ewes in the pre-lamb shear.
All going to plan, that effort will be repeated today before the shed is officially retired.
But Alistair Campbell and son Duncan, owners of the 151-year old station since 1981, are not getting out of the wool game. They are going to build a new bigger shed in a better location.
Alistair said it was not a particularly sad day, but he would remember the shed with some fondness.
''There was an incident 10 years ago where a section of the roof blew off as shearers were working ... they had a bit more daylight for a while,'' he said, laughing.
Parts of the shed dated back to the 1860s when it was situated on the Paulin orchard near the Fraser River, he said.
A hundred years ago, it was deconstructed and parts of it were moved to Earnscleugh Station. About 50 years ago, a concrete block add-on was constructed.
But times have changed in the district and the 26,000 sheep from the 21,000ha station have to cross too many roads to get to the shed these days and that was, at times, dangerous, he said.
A new shed, with eight stands and more room for wool handlers, classers, pressers and wool bins, will be built within a couple of months somewhere more central to where the stock is run.
He was unsure what would happen to the old shed as the area will be mined for gold in the future.
The five brothers work for Peter Lyon Shearing, which has held the shearing contract for the station for the past 27 years.
