After having put a crowbar through the centrepiece of a coil of barbed wire each of the two of us would take hold of each end of the crowbar if the roll nearly abreast high each man walking on the side of it and off we would go with the roll or wire unrolling itself as we walked, having previously tied the end to a tree.
Having finished this part of the job of laying the wire along the boundary of the piece of grass land we were going to enclose.
The next move was to staple it onto trees along this route about 2 feet 9 inches from the ground.
Should the distances between these trees be too great and thus require a supporting stake midway between them a stake would be cut and pointed at one end with a square cut on the other and driven into the ground the barbed wire pulled tight and stapled on to it.
This was a quick and inexpensive way of making a temporary paddock for big stock such as horses and cattle.
Sometimes "to make sure" a second wire would be put on likewise midway between the top wire and the ground.
There were very many such fences put up during the early settlement of the Gnowangerup district as they served the purpose very well and were quickly put up.
Sometimes when we were walking along abreast with this wire unrolling, it would happen we came upon two trees growing close together say a foot apart - then it took a lot of connivering" and patience and besides was a severe test of one's knowledge and use of bad language especially when the "prickly wire" made some scratches on us!
Herman Gunther always called it the "prickly wire". I think he well named it.