Wood you, could you, split and chop like these fellers?

Susanna Freymark

Six men stand on chunky logs; axes poised in the air.

It is the woodchop final at the Kyogle Show on Saturday, October 7.

Each entrant has a different start time – a race handicap. The buzzer goes and the first man starts chopping.

A few seconds later the buzzer goes again and the sound of the chop, chop becomes louder and louder as all six of them eventually bring their axes down repeatedly with as much strength as they can muster.

Woodchips fly. Chop, chop, until the first log is chopped in half and falls to the ground.

The winner is James Livingstone from Fairy Hill.

James puts his win down to the “exceptionally good wood” which was flooded gum.

The ring is cleared for the fencepost ripping.

This time, each man uses a chainsaw to slice a long thick log several times.

Then they hammer wedges into the logs, splitting them to produce posts.

Dan Williams from Goolmangar wins the individual fencepost ripping comp.

Then it is the teams comp. Two men in each team work together to strip two logs.

It’s fast, furious work. It’s noisy, sweaty and a great sport for the spectators around the show ring.

The posts from the comp are auctioned off.

Here are photos from the woodchop and fencepost ripping comps. And there are lots more show pics here.