The Rough Shed

Several weeks during the sheep-shearing season at Budgerygar Station, in one of the remotest parts of the New South Wales bush. A milieu and characters that will continue to hold a special place in the Australian imagination despite the recent transformation of the wool industry. Strangers to ordinary domesticated existence, the itinerant sheep-shearers stand as the last in the line of adventurers – they have their own traditions and language, handed down from one generation to another. Errol arrives to work the season accompanied by young Kayla, his 4-year-old daughter, whom he drags along with him wherever he lands a contract. His mother, Mary, is taken on as a cook and comes to join them. Although the work enables Errol to fit in relatively easily, the isolation, boredom and petty day-to-day vexations weigh more heavily on mother and daughter in this harsh, untalkative and essentially male environment. And everyone is aware that the child’s future will soon impose another way of life.