A "LEGEND" of Western Australian shearing has gone with the passing early last week of former champion shearer and long-time shearing contractor Brian 'Bero' Beresford.
Mr Beresford, 78, of Manning, died in hospital after having suffered a suspected stroke earlier at his Bullaring shearing contracting headquarters, south east of Corrigin, where he was preparing for another busy spring shearing.
David Lawrence, of the West Australian Competition Shearing Association and a friend of Mr Beresford, posted a tribute on Top Gun Shearing's Facebook page last week, outlining his 63-year continuous career in the shearing industry.
Mr Beresford was born in Bombala, southern New South Wales and joined the industry as a 15-year-old shed hand then learned to shear, eventually shearing in many parts of Australia and in New Zealand, Mr Lawrence posted.
"He was a top shearing competitor, having won over 50 open events including the Perth Royal (Show), Canberra and Bathurst (shows), along with a WA State title and 1984 Sunbeam Champion of Champions," he said.
"(As a shearing contractor) he believed in giving a learner a fair go, having run learner schools for many years in the 1980s at Shackleton."
Australian Shearing Hall of Fame inductee and Australian Wool Innovation shearing instructor Kevin Gellatly was a close friend of Mr Beresford and spoke to him on the Friday before he died.
"He was in good spirits, but he rang me instead of me ringing him which I suppose was unusual," Mr Gellatly said.
"He was a legend in the industry - the best (shearing) contractor I ever worked for.
"He was an outstanding shearer - he won more than 55 shows competing in some of the top shearing events and we shore some rams together for stud breeders in the early years.
"But he was the best contractor ever.
"He looked after his teams - in the early days his wife Theresa was the cook - and he was one of the first (shearing contractors) to use a bus to get his teams to and from jobs.
"He was a good teacher and gave lots of young people a start."
Mr Gellatly said he worked for Mr Beresford, who was then based at Shackleton, for 12 years in the 1980s and 90s after moving from Perenjori to Perth for his children's education.
"In the early days he had a big run up in the North West, we were away for all of April, May and June and went up as far as Middalya station (north west of Carnarvon) - we did all the big stations up there," Mr Gellatly said.
"He was still doing what he loved (shearing contracting - his other love love was fishing) when he passed away, he still had runs at Shackleton, Wandering and down at Boyup Brook."
Retired wool classer and shearing contractor Peter Letch, who was a competitor as well as a friend of Mr Beresford, said "he had his different ways at times, but we got on well".
"We did a lot of fishing and camping together up towards Carnarvon," Mr Letch said.
"He was a very good shearer and I did some classing for him after I retired (as a contractor).
"He operated from shearing quarters in Shackleton for many years and in later years operated out of quarters at Bullaring."
The Shearers & Pastoral Workers Social Club posted on Top Gun's Facebook page about Mr Beresford: "No more stressing about staff or wet sheep, (you) will be missed by members of SAPWSC".
Mr Beresford is survived by wife Theresa, daughters Rachel and Katrina who have worked in the shearing industry and sons Nathan and Joel.