Fromer Willaura farmer Denis Hucker views one of his greatest achievements as continuing his father's legacy as a wool classer.
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Born in 1921, Stanley Hucker was only 15 years old when he began three-year wool classing course at Gordon Technical School in Geelong.
Stanley decided to take the course that would give birth to 90 years of wool classing shared between father and son.
After completing the course, he returned to the family farm in Lake Bolac but was soon leaving again as he enrolled to serve in World War Two.
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Stanley was awarded the military medal for his service on Shaggy Ridge in Papua New Guinea.
Upon returning from the war, Stanley was given a soldier settlement allotment on Edgarley Station, just north of Willaura.
"It was only a small farm," Mr Hucker said.
"So he ran 1,800 to 2,000 sheep on the farm."
"He also did wool classing around the district at several shed to gain a bit more experience."
Precisely 30 years after beginning the wool classing course at Gordon Technical School, Stanley's son Denis decided to do the same.
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Mr Hucker said this was the natural choice for him.
"I enjoyed working in the sheds, I enjoyed coming home from school and getting on the tractor or helping dad with his shearing," he said.
Mr Hucker excelled during the course and finished the dux of his class.
Following his graduation, he worked at some of the biggest sheep sheds in the state, specialising in fine wool classing.
"I gained a lot of experience up in the Riverina with the British Tobacco Company," he said.
"I went to Sydney with a contractor from Geelong, and we met the manager of the British Tobacco Company, which controlled a lot of the properties in the Riverina.
"We were contracted for about half-a-dozen sheds and probably 200,000 sheep. I classed a lot of those sheds."
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In 1972 Mr Hucker returned to familiar pastures, became a station hand at a Willaura property, and became manager of another farm in the region two years later.
"I was only 23 or 24 at the time," Mr Hucker said.
"But my wool classing background helped me get in there, as I was wool classing in the shed at the farm while managing it.
Mr Hucker would also begin leasing land, including some land on his father's farm.
He said at the beginning of the 1980s, the wool market was exceptionally strong. However, his fortunes soon took a sharp turn.
"Dad and I went through the 1983 drought and things didn't go to well," Mr Hucker said.
"I had to shoot sheep because of the drought as we ran out of feed and ran out of water."
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In the aftermath of the drought, Stanley decided to sell the farm and retire to Ocean Grove.
The drought also forced Mr Hucker to pivot. He began work as a super spreader and later started his own sheep shearing business, continuing as a wool classer all the while.
Mr Hucker would receive his 50 years as a registered wool classer stencil award from the Australian Wool Exchange at the annual Gordon Wool School Old Students Association Dinner held in 2018.
He would retire the same year and said he was proud to have continued his father's legacy.
"To achieve 90 years wool classing between a father and son is a great achievement," he said.
"I doubt you'd find anyone else who could beat that record."
Mr Hucker said it was an industry he had loved being part of and would readily recommend to others.
"I have certainly enjoyed working with a great number of people whom have helped me along the way," he said.
"You do not have to have a farming background to do wool classing. If you like the great outdoors, have a go, you never know it may turn out that you enjoy the challenges that come before you."
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