Over 25 years, South Australian company Courela has established an international reputation for shearing clothing, products and repairs.
Story By Liz Davis
When Kerry and Noel ‘Grub’ Johnson began their small shearing clothing business 25 years ago, they worked out of a small weatherboard house on the family farm at Courela, SA, north-east of Streaky Bay. Kerry was looking after two children and using a domestic sewing machine to sew shearing trousers, or dungas, while Grub travelled all over South Australia as a shearer.
“I remember shearing 500 sheep over two days and then going home to cut out 80 singlets,” Grub says.
Now the Courela name is known internationally, and the brand appears on coloured polo shirts, white singlets and as a stripe down dungas. Two Courela vans operate in South Australia, and they can deliver everything from a bottle of oil to the complete installation of a new wool press, generator or an entire shearing plant.
This story excerpt is from Issue #91
Outback Magazine: Oct/Nov 2013
