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Sheep
arrived in Australia with the first fleet and
were primarily used as a food source. This began to change
in 1797 with the arrival of the first fine wool Spanish
merinos. This formed a base for a selective breeding program
by John Macarthur and the Reverend Samuel Marsden focusing
on wool rather than meat.
In 1821
the first auction of Australian wool was held at Garraway’s
coffeehouse, London.
By 1838
sheep were in every Australian colony and wool became Australia’s main
export with an annual wool clip over two million kilograms.
In some
ways the 1870’s and 1880’s marked the peak of the wool
industry’s influence.
Wool continued to dominate
Australia’s exports.
The
1890’s saw a combination of falling wool prices with a very
bad drought.
Sheep numbers fell by almost half of their previous peak of
106 million.
Wool in the 20th
Century
The
1890’s drought was still raging at the start of the 20th
century. It
would take the industry almost thirty years to rebuild sheep
numbers to their previous peak.
More
difficult times followed with the development of synthetic
fibres combined with changing consumer taste forcing prices
down.
This
slowed but could not stop the decline in wool’s relative
position within the fibre marketplace.
Many
producers left the industry while others looked into new
income sources to supplement wool incomes. This reduced
wool’s importance within primary production and wool
increasingly became a specialist fibre.
Today
the wool industry remains important as providers of high
quality natural fibres.
Little Facts:
Australia
is the world’s largest producer of wool, producing 28% of
the total greasy wool production in 2002/2003. This was the
result of 117.5 million sheep being shorn, producing 499
million kg of greasy wool.
Australia
exports wool to 55 countries, with
China
the biggest purchaser.
Saunders Wool exports primarily to
China, India and America.
The
1990’s were one of the driest decades on record. In 2002/03
severe drought hit most wool growing areas.
In
2004 wool production and sheep numbers fall to the lowest
levels in 50 years.
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