THE upcoming Australian Sheep and Wool Show – the largest show of its kind in the world - would not be possible without the hard work of hundreds of volunteers, organisers say.

About 250 people donated their time and their elbow grease to the show on Tuesday, setting up the pens ahead of the anticipated arrival of the first sheep on Tuesday night.

Australian Sheep Breeders’ Association president Malcolm Starritt said penning day was an “institution” and a chance for some of the show’s attendees to catch up before it all kicked off on Friday morning.

He said the first of the volunteers started work about 7.30am – beginning their day with a bit of a cooked breakfast and coffee – and he expected they would be out by 5pm.

Setting up the pens was an enormous job, Mr Starritt said, because every sheep was an individual and had to be penned according to their breed, age, stud and health status.

“Everything’s got to be penned correctly for the sheep to be ready to show,” he said.

Chris Evans, a Dorper breeder from “the other side of Moama” in New South Wales, has been visiting the show for about eight years, and lending his time to help set it up for the past couple of years.

On Tuesday morning he was at the Prince of Wales Showgrounds in the building where the merinos will be held, helping cart some of the thousands of hay bales to the pens.

Mr Evans said the show always needed volunteers and he didn’t mind helping out, adding that he could afford to take some time away from the farm when it was “so nice and green”.

But volunteers are involved in far more than setting up the pens.

Mr Starritt said the entire show required “an army of volunteers”, with hundreds more working across all aspects of the show, including administration.

“It’s extraordinary,” Mr Starritt said.

Most of the volunteers came from around Victoria, he said.

Site holders will begin setting up their retail stalls today and the majority of the sheep are expected to arrive on Thursday.

This year’s show is expected to be the biggest in its 139 years of existence, with 3000 sheep, 450 sites, 22 sub-events and more than 30,000 people anticipated to attend.

The show includes competitions, woolcraft, fashion, food, education, yard dog trials, the state’s shearing championships, cooking and butchering demonstrations, retail, lunch and dinner events, an international conference, and for the first time, the showing of beef breeds.

The Australian Sheep and Wool Show starts on Friday, July 15, and runs until Sunday, July 17.