The Jackie Howe shearing medal, gold fob watch with original photographs, Despite the major economic, social and technological revolutions of the past fifty years, Australia's national identity remains significantly connected to the pastoral industries, and in particular to sheep and wool. As well as the general social mythology of rural life, of boss cockies and bushmen and drovers' wives, the specific imagery of sheep and shearing is deeply embedded in the national imagination, and can be seen in a host of cultural artefacts: from Tom Roberts's celebrated paintings Shearing the rams