Woodchop & Sawing Competition History

The sport of woodchop has its origins in 1870 in Tasmania, where legend has it a wager of £25 was made between two men, Joseph Smith and Jack Biggs. In the backyard of the Sprent Hotel in Ulverstone they chopped three-foot tall standing blocks, but a dispute broke out over the winner, resulting in a free-for-all-brawl. Impromptu contests became common, however, and the sport gradually organised, gaining in popularity as it spread to all states. In 1891 the United Australasian Axemen's Association was formed to establish rules.

The first woodchopping event at the Show was held in 1899 in a paddock which doubled as a cattle ring. Four heats were held in the morning and the final was held in the afternoon. Programmed on the last day of the Show as an attraction to boost attendance, the match was an instant success with a crowd of 8,000 turning out to watch. Twenty-six competitors vied for prizes which ranged from £5 to £25. Four of the eight Heckenberg brothers from Green Valley, near Liverpool, were favourites, but the day was won by a Victorian named MacKinolty, who had won championships in three colonies. Despite their initial defeat, the Heckenbergs were to become stars of the sport, finishing their careers with eleven championships between them. The suburb of Heckenberg is named after them. Family dynasties of competitors have been common ever since.

The Woodchop competition was successfully staged again at the 1900 Show, but was then discontinued until 1906, possibly due to the lack of an appropriate venue. Every year thereafter, Woodchop has been a feature of the Show – except for a brief, unexplained disappearance in 1910.

An RAS Woodchop Committee was formally established in 1928. That same year the director of the RAS, Lt-Colonel Somerville, remarked:

One of the most attractive sections at the show proves to be the woodchopping. For every event the stadium was crowded with onlookers, numbers being unable to obtain a position to view the contest.

This popularity, teamed with a desire to draw in more Show crowds, prompted the building of an official woodchop arena in 1938. At this time, the handles and blades of axes were standardised, and disqualification rules were brought in to kerb unruly behaviour. The liberal consumption of alcohol by sportsmen and judges alike often made for wild and bloody disputes, especially when big prizemoney was up for grabs. Today sensor technology is used to determine the placings of competitors down to 1/100 of a second.

In 1981 events for chainsaws were included, introducing a new and exciting element to the sport and 1990 saw the introduction of the Jack and Jill Competition (with one male, and one female competitor in a team). 

When the Show relocated from Moore Park to Sydney Olympic Park in 1998, Woodchop moved into a new, purpose-built stadium, named after Charles Moses. One of Woodchop’s most enthusiastic Committee chairmen, Moses was a long-serving Managing Director of the ABC and a skilled axeman himself, recreationally felling trees well into his seventies.

Woodchop remains one of the Show’s most iconic attractions, a favourite of all generations and people from all walks of life. In 2003 its appeal was expanded even more broadly with the official introduction of the women's competition and in 2024 the introduction of world championship events for women.

It is also tradition at the Show for axemen to pretend to shave visiting dignitaries with their razor-sharp axes, the Duke of Edinburgh and the Prince of Wales being two such lucky participants.

Timeline*

• 1899    First woodchop competition at the Show, involving only standing cuts. 
• 1908    First Commonwealth Championships for wood-chopping and sawing held at Sydney's Royal Easter Show in 1908. The challenge rule is introduced. The 'sleeper squaring' event is also introduced (sleepers squared to NSW Government standard).
• 1914     Sawing event introduced.
• 1917     Underhand cuts event introduced.
• 1926     First Nations woodchopper Leo Appo wins the World Championship and goes on to become rated as the best axeman in Australia between the wars.
• 1926     Tree felling event introduced.
• 1931     Combination standing and underhand cuts event introduced.
• 1939     A dress code of long cream or white trousers and blue singlets is introduced. Prior to this, contestants competed as they worked and trained: bare legged, bare chested and sometimes bare footed.
• 1948     Formation of the RAS Axeman's Association of NSW, which helped create uniform regulations for the sport.  The organisation became autonomous in 1960.
• 1950     Team relays event introduced.
• 1951     New Zealand axeman Joe Julian comes in bare feet to compete at the Show. He eventually gave in to demands to put on shoes, but not before cutting out the soles.
• 1954    Hard hitting contests event introduced.
• 1981    Events for chainsaws are included. 
• 1988    Axe throwing, power saw, tree topping, speed climbing, log rolling & choker setting event introduced.
• 1990     Introduction of the Jack and Jill Competition (one male, one female competitor in a team).
• 2002     Trial of women’s competition with Ladies Round Robin Events that also included Jill and Jill Sawing, single Saw, and Underhand. Female competition officially introduced in 2003.
• 2024     Introduction of world championship events for women.

*Some of the events mentioned are no longer run