Church on a sheep’s back

from the desk of sue whiteley, elder

We all know how lucky Snake Valley and district are to have our wonderful blue stone church, gifted in its entirety by Philip Russell MLC and family.

How did we get so lucky?

The answer is on the back of sheep and through a good Samaritan, Philip Russell.

The sheep bred by the Russells were so successful in wool production that the family became wealthy enough to be generous and our town benefited from that generosity in many ways. Most particularly,  from the gift of our big bluestone church paid for by the Russell family.

In 2007 a sample of the Russell’s merino wool from 1889 was found at the Power House Museum and tested by the Interactive Wool Group. They used the most recent technology, the OFDA 2000 to analyse the wool and found it to be 18.8 microns for an adult ewe. This relates to a 98.9% comfort rating classified as extra fine wool.

I wonder if any of the original Carngham merino blood line sheep are still roaming our local fields?

Next time we will tell you about the sheep washing machine!