Jerusha McDowell, Deeargee (URBAN 2025)

Old wool sheds are like churches.The air thick with the scent of aged wood and lanolin, dust dancing in shafts of filtered light. Their stillness offering sanctuary and inviting moments of quiet reflection. There is a sense of quiet reverence and history, where the rituals of hard work and tradition, generations of sweat and toil, are laid down in the timber itself. The patina of time there to touch and to smell. If sheering sheds are like churches then the 150 year old Deeargee Wooshed is a cathedral. Standing in the vestibule of this 150 year old building is quite an experience. The entrance to the woolshed records the station’s annual yield, every year from year one, a tally of bales is stencilled onto the wall. I have photographed the familiar architecture of this woolshed from the outside many times. On this day I was lucky enough to spend an afternoon shooting inside this very special building.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.