Scanned copy of b&w class photograph of 2nd year students, Sheep & Wool Department, Sydney Technical College, 1922, 24 x 18 cms. Given to the collection by Pamela Finch, Executive Assistant, Ultimo College, West Cluster, Sydney Institute. Includes background information about her relative, Frederick Rolfe Finch who graduated as a wool classer at Sydney Technical College in 1922.
1922 (original photograph)
This is a scanned copy of an original photograph of Frederick Rolfe Finch's 2nd year wool-classing classmates at Sydney Technical College in 1922. Frederick Finch trained at Sydney Wool Stores in 1921 and attended Sydney Technical College in 1922. The original photograph was taken outside the College's Sheep and Wool Department located at the time at the corner of Mary Ann and Jones Street, Ultimo. Sydney Technical College's drainage diagram (TA36), dated 1919 confirms this location. Clarence Edward Cowley was Lecturer-in-Charge of Sheep and Wool in 1922. The Department taught shearing, wool sorting and classing, sheep classing and judging, and the maintenance of sheep shearing machinery, all with a strong theoretical and practical component. Farm experience was part of these courses. There was a strong demand for pastoral skills like these because of the structure of the Australian economy. During the 1920s, wool and sheep exports accounted for about 75% of Australia's pastoral export income and by the late 1920s, Australian flocks produced about 50% of the world's merino wool. By 1924, the Department of Sheep and Wool had moved into B wing, East Sydney Technical College - now Building 24, National Art School. Sources: 1. Beck, Deborah (2005) Hope in Hell : a history of Darlinghurst Gaol and the National Art School. Allen & Unwin, Crows Nest, NSW. pp.61-63 2. Department of Sheep and Wool Courses of Instruction section, pp.2-10 in Handbook : Sydney Technical College, Branch Technical Colleges, Trades Schools (1922) W.A. Gullick, Government Printer, Sydney. 3. www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@nsf/Previousproducts/1301.0Feature%20Article172003? <Accessed 3/3/2014>
Document
TA2068
Box 16 Library
Ultimo
Sydney Technical College, sheep , wool classing