Ethan Harder, left, with Oberon Quickshear sponsor George Blyde and a little fan, George’s son Carter. Image – supplied.
WORLD record holding Western Australian shearer Ethan Harder became the first Aussie to win the $20,000 for first place in the Oberon Quickshear on the weekend, shearing a composite lamb in just 19.31 seconds.
“It is the fastest time ever at Oberon,” organiser Aaron Booth said.
“Those lambs would have been about 40kg (liveweight).”
After carefully positioning his final composite lamb to make it comfortable and starting with a single blow to clear the first back leg, Harder powered over the lamb in about 25 blows using a diamond cutter on a Heiniger XLR-8 comb.
“That ($20,000) is the biggest prizemoney I’ve ever won in speed shear competitions – it was good.”
Rain and wind tightened up the lambs on the day, but the 26 year-old shearer and contractor – Elite Shearing at Bruce Rock – said the lambs shore good all day. He also gave credit to some work on his comb by gear man Paul Hicks.
Ethan said “he does all his fancy stuff to it, thins them out and rounds them up”, but wouldn’t give any details.
“You’ve got to keep a few secrets brother.”
Aaron said Ethan has made the final every year he competed at Oberon, but it wasn’t the quickest lamb he has shorn in a speed shearer competition. He won the Hamish Wills Memorial Quick Shear in Western Australia in November 2025 by shearing a lamb in 14.85 seconds.
“I think the key to his success is he has just got that first blow on the undermine absolutely mastered,” Aaron said.
“I thought he would have had trouble on the last leg because he had to go down over the tail to get that bit that a second undermine blow gets.
“But he’s just got it mastered,” Aaron said.
“He fixed up that bit on the flank in the long blow and he just screams down that last side – unreal,” he said.
“It’s the first time an Australian has won it since we’ve had the big prizemoney.”
The total prizemoney pool for the Oberon Quickshear is $48,000, the biggest in the world. Ethan told Sheep Central there is always room for improvement.
“Especially with all the talent that is there.”
Victorian shearer Caleb Morgan was second in the Oberon Quickshear in 20.43 seconds and took home $5000 in prizemoney, also beating the New Zealand-dominated final field.
Aaron said Caleb is a very talented shearer.
“He’s only 23 years-old, he’s going to be unbeatable in a couple of years.
“He holds the handpiece a little bit different to the other shearers, with his index finger right up on the tension nut,” Aaron said.
“He’s just got unbelievable hand to eye co-ordination; he just goes flat out, he never gets hung up.”
The remaining places went to New Zealand shearers. Third place went to Jimmy Samuels in 21.79 seconds, then Beau Hawkins 21.8 seconds, Hemi Power 22.74 seconds, Adam Brausch 23.37 and Whanake Whare 24.22 seconds. Last year’s Oberon winner Jack Fagan was eighth in 24.28 seconds, then came Tuara Hemara in 24.69 seconds and Australian shearer Randy Bedford 10th in 24.45 seconds. Jimmy Samuels also won the last man standing event at Oberon to take home $6000 for the day.
“I’d like to have a go at the eight hour ewe record next, we’ll see how everything pans out.”
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