Steve Paterson has worked as a shearing contractor in Mukinbudin for five decades - and he hasn't missed a winter or summer season.
"I would argue that I am the longest operating contractor in Western Australia, if not the whole of Australia," Mr Paterson said.
"It's been hard work, but I've enjoyed it and I don't plan on retiring any time soon."
The now 67-year-old grew up in Pingelly, where his father worked as farm manager on several different properties, before deciding to lease land at Mukinbudin.
Having spent his childhood in the Wheatbelt, Mr Paterson was exposed to the shearing industry from a young age, but despite his upbringing, woolshed work wasn't always part of his plan.
"I left high school in third year and didn't know what I was going to do," he said.
"I applied to work at the local bank and was told I wasn't really suited for the job.
"My brother was working in sheds at the time and asked if I could give him a hand, so I went and worked for Pingelly contractor Jimmy Gray.
"I was 16-years-old and remember my brother, who was also named Jimmy, saying, 'well if you're going to be out here, I may as well teach you how to shear'.
"Within a month I learned how to shear a whole sheep and not long after I was given my own learner stand.
"It was only meant to be temporary, until I figured out what I wanted to do."
About 12 months later, the Paterson family moved to Mukinbudin, where Mr Paterson started working under local contractor Merv Ettridge.
Mr Ettridge had a small cocky run that he wanted to retire from, which in 1975, Mr Paterson and his brother Jimmy decided to take over.
"The two of us took that on together, but within a couple of years Jimmy and his wife wanted to move back to Pingelly," Mr Paterson said.
"I was left to run it by myself.
"It was a small run that started off with three or four shearers, 15 farm sheds and about 35,000 sheep each year.
"Having seen how the industry worked I had an ambition of working as a shearer contractor.
"Before long my cocky run grew into a contract run and by the time I was 19-years-old I was running the show."
Mr Paterson didn't plan on staying in the shearing or contracting game long, but after marrying his wife Gail and having kids young, he decided to settle into life in Mukinbudin.
"We had four children Michael, Bradley, Tim and Jolene," he said.
"Mukinbudin was a good place to bring them up."
As well as working as a contractor, the Patersons have been actively involved in the community in other ways.
From 1994-1998, they ran the Mukinbudin cafe, before buying the local clothing store, named Jo's Dust n Surf after their daughter, and the newsagency.
"We combined the two businesses and had that for about 10 years," Mr Paterson said.
"It was mostly run by my wife and daughter, but I gave them a hand when I could and still shore in amongst that.
"I haven't missed a season even with a few minor injuries."
Now, Mr Paterson's son Michael works for WA Police, meanwhile Bradley, who is a pastor and also does hobby shearing, is known as the shearing preacher.
Jolene and Tim have both remained in Mukinbudin, separately taking over the Muka Tyre Mart and Thrifty-Link hardware shops.
Wanting a healthy work-life balance, Mr Paterson has been heavily involved in local sports including basketball, football, cricket and golf.
He played more than 500 games of cricket and would still be playing had the Mukinbudin side not folded.
"I've been the president of the basketball and cricket clubs and am now president of the golf club," Mr Paterson said.
"I've also coached our local footy team the Mukinbudin Rams twice and in 2018, I rallied the side to a premiership.
"That was a pretty testing year because we had a young bloke playing for us who tragically died on the training track, halfway through the season.
"We ended up in third place on the ladder and won our way to the grand final.
"These sporting clubs are the lifeline of small country towns and we are lucky in Mukinbudin to have a basketball association and strong numbers in junior sports."
Separately, Mr Paterson has served a couple of stints as a councillor on the Shire of Mukinbudin.
He is a proud local who said the town had grown in many ways over the past five decades, despite the population dwindling from 1200 to 350 people.
Mr Paterson believed this was a result of farmers selling out, with their land purchased by neighbouring properties which expand.
As well as a reduction in human population, he said there was also a drop in sheep numbers.
"When I first arrived at Mukinbudin every farm had sheep," Mr Paterson said.
"There were about 15 people that you would call the local shearers and others that were seasonal.
"When the price of wool dropped off, after the Australian Wool Reserve Price Scheme crashed, a lot of people moved into total cropping and now half of the farms don't have sheep here.
"In saying that, I think numbers would have remained steady over the past 10 years and the ones that are in sheep have stuck with it."
A few years ago, Paterson Shearing was shearing for about 50 different local farmers and running two teams in busy periods.
However a shortage of shearers and woolshed workers has forced him to drop back in numbers.
Mr Paterson said it was pretty tough telling some farmers he wouldn't be able to shear for them anymore.
Fortunately he is confident and feels supported in the team he now oversees.
"I have a fantastic team - they are reliable people, who turn up day-in and day-out and are happy to work all the time," Mr Paterson said.
"I think when you attract a good team, you can attract good work.
"There are five of us shearing and about 11 of us in total, we are so busy that I am struggling to keep up.
"We are shearing for 40-odd farmers within the district and in excess of about 150,000 sheep.
"At the end of the year we would normally shear lambs, at one shed we shore 2500 lambs last year and only 300 this year, so there's a big drop."
As can be expected, having spent many years in the wool industry, Mr Paterson has experienced many highs, lows and changes.
When he first started only narrow and no wide combs were used.
"We used to heat up the two outside teeth of the comb and stretch them out, so we had a wider blow when we shore," Mr Paterson said.
"The union was never as strong in WA, but if you shore over east you couldn't get away with doing that."
The four-year 'wide comb dispute' sparked violence, turmoil and even gun battles between supporters and opponents of wide combs.
Wide combs, typically 86 millimetres with 13-teeth, were banned in Australia from 1926.
Backed by the Australian Workers Union, shearers stuck with narrow 64mm combs for about five decades, until wide combs were introduced by New Zealand shearers in WA.
According to some reports, preliminary tests carried out during the late 1970s showed that wide-toothed combs were 14pc more productive than narrow combs.
"Back then there were plenty of shearers, so often work would run out and shearers would be looking for work," Mr Paterson said.
"When some shearers used wide combs and shore more per day there were less for the slower shearers using narrow combs.
"The argument was that sheep being shorn faster would result in a shorter shearing season, so less work.
"These days with a shortage of shearers it does sound nonsense."
Mr Paterson said shearers moved to wide, otherwise known as Kiwi, combs in the early 1980s.
"It made a massive difference in shearing because we could shear another 30-40 sheep per day," he said.
"In tougher going sheep the wide combs weren't as developed as they are now.
"They were very hard to push because the teeth were too thick."
Another major shift occurred in the late 1980s, when women were allowed to start working in shearing sheds.
Before then they weren't welcome at all and if they did enter the shed, for whatever reason, men would alert each other of their presence by shouting the code warning "ducks on the pond".
In that era, Mr Paterson was working on a local property, with about 15,000 sheep and was short of staff.
The farmer's daughter Joanna was working as a roustabout and he asked her if she wanted a job - she jumped at the opportunity.
"Joanna was the first female to work as a shearer in Mukinbudin," Mr Paterson said.
"She took on a stand full-time, shore with us for about 10 years and could shear 140-150 a day.
"I remember once we were going to shear at her aunty and uncle's place, I phone up and her aunty said, 'I hope you don't bring Joanna out here because it isn't a ladylike thing for her to be doing'."
"When I started blokes didn't even like women entering the shed, but Joanna was welcome into our team."
When he first started out in the industry, Mr Paterson would head to work crammed in an old green Falcon, with six or seven others and a dog or two.
He said shearing gear, which was only a handpiece and a couple of items, were all placed in the back.
Now, buses are used with a trailer full of shearing heads, air coolers and other equipment.
"It was good back in the day," Mr Paterson said.
"You went from farm to farm and would go down to the house and have lunch.
"Once you'd been there for a couple of years you were like extended family really."
When Mr Paterson first started shearing, particularly in the Wheatbelt area, he found that sheep were a much smaller frame and quicker and easier to handle.
Over time they have grown bigger and cut a lot more wool of better quality.
Most sheep in Mukinbudin cut about five to six kilograms at a 19-20 micron average, with some farms having a finer 17-18 micron wool in their younger sheep.
In the earlier days, of smaller framed sheep, Mr Paterson might have been cutting only three to four kilograms.
Outside of the woolshed the administration side of work has also developed with the introduction of technology.
Unlike the computer programs and internet banking used today, Mr Paterson previously relied on two docket books to keep track of pay and the number of sheep shorn.
When he finished shearing a docket would be handed to the farmer, which stated the number of sheep shorn and dollars owed, and to the shearer, with how many sheep they had shorn and what they would be paid.
Then the shearers would be given a cheque.
"That's how it used to work - two docket books and a bank account," Mr Paterson said.
"Now you have direct pay, where all our wages are done on one program."
Mr Paterson said to cover people with work compensation it was also only a few hundred to $1000 maximum.
Now - as a small operator - it costs him over $100,000.
He said costs had been increasing over the years and were at about 15pc.
"So you shear a sheep for $4.25, 15pc of that is workers compo - that's another 60-odd cents per sheep.
"That's just to cover your shearers, not even your shed staff."
In recent years, Mr Paterson has found one of the biggest challenges to be finding and retaining staff.
While improvements had been made, including in new sheds with raised boards and sloped pens, he said it was difficult to attract people to work in the industry.
"It is hard to bring a young person out here and keep them interested in wanting to stay," Mr Paterson said.
"I think backpackers could be the solution to the problem - I had three working for me last year including a guy from Austria and a couple from the UK and Japan.
"They did three months for me and liked it so much they came back and did a couple of months before Christmas, and plan on returning again.
"There is a brilliant career in shearing, particularly for those who don't want to work indoors and don't have any qualifications."
For Mr Paterson it is his family who has kept him going and the satisfaction of the job.
"I always thought I'd get out of it and do something else, then one year turned into another and here I am 50 years later," he said.
"When things go well I enjoy running the contracting business and seeing the satisfaction of a job well done.
"They say you are only as good as the people you employ.
"It is very nice when a farmer comes in and says oh that's a job well done, thanks a lot."
Erika Clarke first started working for Paterson Shearing more than 30 years ago, as a teenager before taking a 10-year break.
Having grown up on a farm north of Mukinbudin, she was exposed to the wool industry from a young age.
"I moved back to the country and asked Steve for a woolhandling job," Ms Clarke said.
"I received my wool classing ticket in 2018 and have been classing ever since.
"I enjoy the pace, the team and people surrounding you with such good work ethic."
Ms Clarke said she planned on sticking to woolshed work for a while.
She described Mr Paterson as being a good boss, who led by example, and was supportive and fair.
Kelly Wanapuhia, Perth, and Craig Taylor, Trayning, echoed Ms Clarke's thoughts on Mr Paterson.
This was supported in the fact Mr Wanapuhia has been working for Mr Paterson on and off for 12 years and Mr Taylor fulltime for eight years.
"Steve is easy to get along with," Mr Wanapuhia said.
"I love the people in the industry most and that there are opportunities to travel the world and work."
Mr Taylor added, "Steve is a genuine bloke and a good leader"
"He's 60-something-years-old and still takes to the stand, shearing what he does in a run."
