Melanie Irwin, Primary Times Managing Editor 
Warning: This article contains content about mental health and suicide.
From nursing people to shearing sheep – and now combining the two – registered nurse Carol Mudford is Founder and CEO of sHedway, a health-promotion charity for suicide prevention and positive mental health in Australia’s shearing and wool industry. As a shearer and wool handler with mental health nursing experience, she employs a unique combination of skills to improve the wellbeing of her tight-knit community.
Mental health is one of the Australian Government’s National Health Priority Areas1 and suicide prevention is an important part of its long-term mental healthcare strategy. People living in rural and remote areas suffer from higher rates of mental illness and suicide – exacerbated by limited access to services and support – with an over-representation in men, young people, Indigenous people and people in farming-related industries. A strong culture of stoicism in rural and remote communities can prevent people from seeking the help they need to navigate distress and mental illness.
Carol and the sHedway team have embarked on a long-term mission to normalise conversations about mental health and to share the skills for suicide prevention throughout the shearing community.
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Carol grew up on a sheep farm in rural New South Wales, and her experience as a registered nurse includes both hospital and primary health care settings. Over a six-year period, she worked in emergency departments in Darwin and Alice Springs and for an Aboriginal community-controlled health organisation in Alice and Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Northern Territory.
‘That was my first experience with primary health care,’ says Carol. ‘I was working with Western Arrernte mothers in a parenting-support program, and it was such an incredible privilege and opportunity. I loved it.’
However, family illness and 2020’s COVID lockdowns saw Carol move back home to the family farm near Dubbo. Her father was battling cancer, and the family gathered together to support his final months at home. Following his passing, Carol took what was planned to be a ‘short break’ from nursing and went to work in the shearing sheds. Starting as a wool handler, she says she found the rhythm and pace of the shearing shed life healing. Eventually she had a go at shearing a sheep and, at 36 years old, attended a shearing school. She went on to shear full time for 18 months and represented NSW as Novice Champion shearer at the National Sports Shear Championships in October 2023.
‘It’s not something I had planned,’ Carol says. ‘I thought it was going to be a few weeks of time out, but I caught the shearing bug and loved it!’
Following that Nationals competition, Carol returned to nursing. She joined a team as a mental health nurse in a rural suicide prevention outreach program across Western NSW. The role involved telehealth and visiting people one-on-one to provide mental health care.
During her first month in the new job, the shearing industry lost three shearers to suicide, including someone Carol had worked with. This became the catalyst for sHedway.
‘I still had calluses on my hands and was going to shearing shows on the weekends, and whilst I was working in suicide prevention, my own community was losing too many people, without any access to supports.’
Carol started sHedway with a simple Facebook page and the idea of running workshops in the sheds. Thanks to community support, over the last two years the initiative has become a national registered charity and, with a team of 13 (and growing) volunteer ‘Legends’, has delivered over 120 events and workshops across Australia.
Carol admits that nursing and shearing is an unusual combination.
‘Shearing and nursing are not at all similar, but I like similar things about them,’ she says. ‘I like the practical aspect of it, and the fast pace and the teamwork. And the satisfaction of knowing when you’ve done a good job. I have a foot in both worlds: shearing and mental health nursing. sHedway is how I connect the two.’
A shearer’s job is as rewarding as it is demanding, and the work can be quite insecure. Shearers and shed staff are employed on a casual basis and the impact of weather is significant. For example, if it rains, there’s no work because you can’t shear wet wool.
Carol describes a tight-knit ‘shed family’, but she also explains that the travel and the physical isolation of the shearing sheds can take their toll.
‘The lifestyle can be very social. We often work in teams, and we’ll be together all day every day. We’ll be on camp out, sometimes for a couple of weeks, sometimes longer. So, there’s a real bonding aspect to the work.’
I ask Carol about the potential for on-the-job rumination, and she explains that it can go both ways.
‘There’s a lot in the act of shearing that can be healing and positive,’ she says. ‘The physicality can be really good for us. But then, when you’re shearing, you’ve got your head down and you can be in your own world.’
‘I’m not a clinical expert on this,’ Carol says, ‘but I’ve been told that the bent over posture of shearing means that our lungs can get compressed, which can affect oxygen flow to the brain. This is if we forget to focus on our breathing and posture. So yes, combined with the repetition of the movements, rumination is possible. It’s really important that we’re aware of that and can manage that risk. Experienced shearers are expert at self-regulation; we all need to learn this skill for the work.’
Carol continues: ‘The shearing sheds offer a rewarding life with camaraderie, purpose and adventure, yet can be remote and isolated when support is needed for tough times.’
The sHedway Legends include shearers, wool handlers and wool classers who volunteer their time to run workshops and host stalls at shows, shearing competitions and other events. One Legend, Simon Tydd, is a part-time shearer and also a registered physiotherapist. He volunteers for sHedway on weekends, providing free assessments and treatments for shearing competitors to support their physical and mental health.
‘We’ve all got a connection to the shearing sheds,’ says Carol. ‘People who attend our workshops are shearers and shed staff, but also other sheep and wool industry professionals, such as trainers, brokers and wool growers.’
sHedway doesn’t offer counselling or clinical services. The focus is on raising awareness and connecting people with the support services that they need.
‘Our goals are to make it normal to talk about mental health, to reduce stigma and to share those skills,’ says Carol. ‘By having people within the community do this work, running workshops, pinning up posters, this normalises those conversations.’
‘I think nurses are great advocates for their communities, and I would love to see more mental health support available to rural Australia. sHedway is working to break the stigma that stops people from seeking help. The next step is to ensure that they’ve got direct access to the support they need when they do reach out, and that is the harder part.’
The sHedway team shares the resources that are easiest to access from the shearing sheds. These include services that are available after hours and by phone, such as Lifeline.
For general mental health counselling, the sHedway team recommends TIACS (This is A Conversation Starter), which provides free professional counselling for Australia’s blue-collar community. Other healthcare services that they promote include Standby: Support after Suicide, Rural Adversity Mental Health Program (RAMHP), the Royal Flying Doctor Service7 and R U OK? (particularly their Rural and Remote Mateship Manual).
During some workshops, the sHedway team will demonstrate making a call to one of these services so that attendees can experience that process.
‘We’ve received really great feedback about that,’ Carol says. ‘People are more confident about making that kind of call after seeing an example on loudspeaker. They say that it’s not as awkward as they thought.’
‘I also spread the message that you can call on behalf of someone else. We can make the call with them, or we can call, and say, “I’ve got this friend…”’
‘I was surprised to realise that a lot of people in the shearing sheds didn’t know about Lifeline, even though it’s advertised and shared so widely.’
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Carol (left) with sHedway Legends (left to right) Taya Evans, Alex Schoff and Casey Chard at the Barraba Show Sports Shear, NSW, March 2025. The sHedway team provides resources, including use of a massage gun, to support the mental health and wellbeing of people in the shearing industry |
I ask Carol about the response she’s received since she launched sHedway and her answer is full of enthusiasm.
‘Community support has been amazing. If you want something done, get a team of shearers onto it!’ she says. ‘Once I started talking to people about my idea, there was just phenomenal support. That does come from a lot of loss, though. We’ve lost a lot of people in the community, and no one wants to lose anyone else, yet there was a determined silence on the topic. In hindsight, I wonder if people simply didn’t know what to do, because since sHedway has started the support has been incredible, and we are seeing great impact.’
‘I didn’t really know where to start with it. I often joke that we’re building the plane as we fly. But you don’t need to know how to do something to start it, and the momentum comes as you go. Help, support and advice come out of the woodwork. My attitude is say yes, and then figure it out.’
Additional support has come in the form of Carol’s 2025 NSW/ACT AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award. This award includes a Westpac bursary and a professional development budget. Carol has started a leadership mentoring program and governance training.
‘I’m also thinking of resuming my mental health nursing diploma,’ she says. ‘I’ve put it on hold to focus on sHedway. I currently have postgraduate qualifications in public health, mental health first aid and safeTALK facilitation, but I’d also like to obtain my credentials as a mental health nurse.’
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Carol (second from left) with (left to right) sHedway Legends Simon Tydd (sHedway physio and shearer), Nicki Guttler (shearing World Record Holder) and Taya Evans (Board Director, wool classer) at the Dubbo Show, NSW Sports Shear State Finals, May 2025. |
Carol and her team have worked hard – as volunteers – to establish sHedway by delivering events and workshops nationally. She says it’s taken discipline to find a balance between the administrative and community work. Carol no longer works in the nursing role and supports her sHedway leadership and activities with shearing and wool handling work, while the charity pursues various funding opportunities. A grant from the NSW Health Men’s Suicide Prevention Small Grants program has also supported a number of workshops across NSW this year.
‘There’s so much work to do to improve mental health for all Australians,’ she says. ‘We all need to work together across the health system to achieve the best impact for our communities, so that a grassroots response like sHedway is no longer needed. The more of us doing this work, the better.’
She says 2026 will be focused on continuing to grow and train the sHedway team across Australia so that they can continue running events and workshops in their local areas into the future.
I ask Carol about what she enjoys most about her work and she refers to the Japanese concept of ikigai: ‘When your purpose in life overlaps with what you love, what the world needs, what you are good at, and what the world will pay for.’
‘sHedway is such an amazing coming together of all the things that I love! It’s my way of giving back to a community that has given me so much, and also a way of finding my place in that community.’
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Carol (front centre) with the safeTALK-certified sHedway Legends at the first sHedway Forum, in Dubbo, NSW, May 2025 |
On 28 October 2025, Carol was announced as National Winner of the 2025 AgriFutures Rural Women’s Award for her work establishing sHedway. This announcement was made at a gala dinner at Parliament House in Canberra. Sponsored by Westpac, the award includes a $20,000 grant, which will go towards expanding sHedway's impact and ensuring that Australia's shearing shed community receives ongoing support for mental health and wellbeing. Congratulations Carol!
If you or someone you know needs crisis support, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. The service is available 24/7.
sHedway is looking to grow its Board. Carol and the team would love to hear from mental health professionals who would like to get involved. Go to shedway.org.au/contact-us.
You can add APNA-Member Professional Indemnity Insurance to your membership, when you join APNA.
Carol shearing a ram, South Australia, October 2023
