The Legend of the Jackie Howe Singlet

 

(Picture from Warwick Daily News 24.02.2009)

The Jackie Howe singlet, as worn by these three strapping young men, was shortlisted as a potential Queensland icon, as part of the Queensland Government's Q150 celebrations in 2009.

Jackie Howe (1861- 1920) was a legendary Australian sheep shearer who was born at Canning Downs station near Warwick in Queensland.  In 1892, in pre-Federation Australia, he broke both the daily and weekly shearing records across the colonies.  On 10 October 1892, Howe shore 321 sheep in seven hours and 40 minutes at the Alice Downs station near Blackall in Queensland, using hand shears – a record that was not broken until 1950 by Ted Reick, who was using machine shears.  In the week beforehand, Howe also set the weekly record, shearing 1,437 sheep in 44 hours and 30 minutes.

At that time, most shearers wore a flannel undershirt while shearing. The flannel had short sleeves covering the biceps and absorbed the shearer’s sweat.

Jackie Howe found the sleeves of his flannel restrictive so one day he tore out the sleeves and wore his flannel with no sleeves. Finding it much more useful with the sleeves out, Jack then got his mother to convert all his flannels into “singlets”.  This caught on and, before long, all the shearers were wearing sleeveless flannels. One of the manufacturers then started making lighter cotton singlets especially for the wool industry. It was not too long before the lighter singlet became popular with all men in all industries and so the “Athletic Singlet” was born. That garment is still sold in its thousands daily in department stores around the world and is worn by most Australian males.  (From http://jackiehowe.com.au/3.html)

 

Jackie Howe bought a pub at Blackall in 1901, and died there in 1920, aged 59.  He is buried in the Blackall cemetery. 

A statue of Jackie Howe with a merino ram was erected in Blackall’s main street.  (Picture from http://travelling-australia.info/CollQldmitchell/APics3B.html)

 

Warwick also wanted to lay claim to Jackie Howe, and the Jackie Howe monument, in Jackie Howe Park, was erected in 1983.  The monument features concrete wool bales and a large pair of hand shears.  The plaque on the monument points out that Jackie Howe learnt his shearing skills in the Warwick district.

We had lunch in this park on our way back from Canberra.  I refrained from climbing on the hay bales and sitting in the helicopter.