I’ve repeatedly written about the ‘importance’ of the timing of the shearing & when the last of the staff associated with that left Oak Park, but no one has commented.
IMO it’s quite possible that it all finished up that Saturday / Friday evening before. Josie & Jess may have been returning the last of the sheep back to their paddock.
We heard they were tending sheep 10 k away from the homestead when Gus disappeared, but we have no idea when they left to do that . … perhaps they only left at 4pm after the afternoon cuppa.
These details are majorly important imo but nothing has been made public, and there has to be a reason why.
There also has to be a reason why family would refrain from asking for help to find a missing child - it’s almost as if they knew it was futile from the outset.
One would hope that everyone who’s been on that place in the course of the year has been spoken to & had their brains picked.
I’m surprised that you’re the only one to comment about the importance of the timing of shearing.
IMO at the beginning the family seemed certain that the explanation for Gus’ disappearance was wandering, possibly because theres no reason for anyone to drive close to the homestead unless visiting (as posted by zesszesszess). Wandering and getting lost did seem the most likely reason but I’m not so sure about that now because theres no evidence of that happening. IMO infrared would’ve found him, or birds of prey would’ve led trackers to where he perished.
The family would still be looking for their little boy everyday .
Hopefully now the shearer’s are being more closely looked at. The police probably know more than they’re letting on.
zesszesszess gave some local insight;
Shearing usually occurs in early Spring, before the weather warms up. It's almost always outsourced. Most stations have 'shearers quarters' - an area or building in which shearers can camp/stay while they're at a property. There are only a handful of shearing mobs in the region, and most properties build a business relationship with one of them - using only them.
There's no reason for anyone to drive anywhere close to the Oak Park homestead itself, unless they are there to visit.
It's not uncommon for people from surrounding stations to use minor tracks that traverse the periphery of the Oak Park property, however, to get to other portions of their own properties. For instance, the quickest way to get from the Tiverton homestead to the Tiverton outstation is via a road that cuts through the eastern edge of Oak Park.