Cleve Olsen of Dubbo knows a thing or two about axes and the art of wood chopping.
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At 70, not only has he spent decades perfecting his craft as an axeman, he is now dedicated to seeing the traditional sport of wood chopping continue to flourish through to the next generation.
“A lot of country people love to watch the wood chopping at agricultural shows because they have had experience themselves of working with wood, fencing or felling trees.
“The wood chop is a sport demanding intense skill and strength and you will be seeing plenty of that on Saturday,” Mr Olsen said.
Mr Olsen has invited some of NSW’s best woodchoppers to attend the Merriwa Springtime Show for a nail biting - and wood splitting - day of competition in underhand, standing block, cross cut and tree felling.
“Tree felling is always the crowd favourite,” Mr Olsen said.
“People never seem to get tired of watching axemen notch boards up the tree before knocking the block off.
“It’s such a difficult event to master but we’ve got axemen coming from Gilgandra, Dubbo, Cooma and Bathurst who will be giving it a good shot.
“Wood chopping as a sport has been around for more than 200 years and is now recognised globally as a heritage sport,” he said.
Mr Olsen said they used scribbly gum for all the wood chop events because ‘it’s the best wood for the job.’
Merriwa Springtime Show president Rob Tindall said he ‘couldn’t wait’ for the show to start tomorrow and run through to Sunday, and had a surprise or two in store for the axemen.
“For the first time we’ve got fence post splitting as well as the wood chop.
“We’ve rustled up a bit of local Ironbark for the boys to use in the fence post split, so it will be interesting to see how they fare with that,” he said.
Farmers, if you’ve got a bit of fencing to do, split posts will be available for purchase after the event.
To see Cleve and all the boys in action get down to the Merriwa Springtime Show this Saturday.
Entry is $10 for adults, $5 for children, with a family pass for $20.
To find out more about ‘what’s on when’ go to www.merriwashow. com.au or just rock up for a fun family day out.