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	Industry Milestones

1900-1924: The Great War



1900		By the end of the 1800's half the Australian clip is being sold through auctions in Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, Adelaide and Hobart.



1902		A.G. Webster & Son's Ltd commence wool sales in Hobart



1911		At least 5 brokers are operating in Launceston, Tasmania, the principal broker being Messrs Allan Stewart Pty Ltd.



1913		Irregular auctions commence in Perth, Western Australia, with catalogues submitted by Dalgety & Co. Ltd and Messrs C.H. Fielding & Co. However, more than 95% of Western Australian wool is still shipped to London.



1914		Nearly 70% of Australia's output of 1,750,000 bales is being sold through Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong, Albury, Brisbane, Adelaide, Hobart, Launceston and Perth.
		Australian wool market is now dominated by an oligopoly of wool brokers with considerable influence over the amount of wool sold and the price received for it. Thirty - four wool broking houses around the country organized the sale and shipment of the Australian wool clip to overseas buyers principally in Britain and Europe.



1916		Australian and British governments agree to the Imperial Wool Purchase scheme. Under this scheme a Central Wool Committee, consisting of representatives of wool growers, wool sellers, wool buyers and manufacturers, with a government nominee as chairman, is established to appraise the entire Australian wool clip as it is received. Within fourteen days of appraisement, the imperial government, through the committee, pays growers ninety per cent of the appraisal value, the balance of ten per cent being paid after the appraisement of each clip was completed.
		Sir John Higgins is appointed to head the Central Wool Committee.
		Under the scheme the British government acquires part of the 1916-17 clip and the whole of the Australian wool clip for the next three seasons.



1917		The Imperial Wool Purchase Scheme is extended at the end to the war to allow markets to absorb the surplus quantities of wool held in stock.



1920		The British contract to buy Australian wool ends. There is 1.8 million bales of carryover wool threatening to destabilise the market. The British government begins unilaterally to sell off some of the stockpile at less than the issue price, to the constenation of Australian wool brokers and wool growers
		The British Australian Wool Realisation Association (BAWRA) is created to be responsible for selling the carryover wool in an orderly fashion. Sir John Higgins is appointed chairman of the organisation. It is registered in Victoria under the Companies Act. Shares are issued to woolgrowers, equivalent to the appraised value of their wool. With the assent of the Australian and British governments and the Central Wool Committee BAWRA assumes responsibility for the carryover wool and its dispersion. Woolbrokers embrace the scheme which they see as a means by which current wool sales can be returned to their control without the political uncertainty associated with the carryover wool.
		Wool prices experience the first of several slumps which are to become a characteristic of the market in the 1920's. By July 1920 the average price at auction for Australian wool is less than a third of that received in the previous two seasons.The slide in wool prices is attributed to a fall in the British wool trade leading to a lack of confidence in the industry by bankers and financial institutions who impose credit restrictions on wool manufacturers. An implicit part of the problem however is the existence of the large wool stockpile.
		Regular wool sales commence in Perth, Western Australia



1921		Sir John Higgins concludes that market stability can only be regained if brokers and the British Australian Wool Realisation Association adopt an agreed approach to the selling of the current clip as well as the carryover wool. He calls conference of wool industry representatives to discuss the matter. Higgins introduces a plan to implement a floor price for wool in the current season. Wool Selling Brokers are horrified by the plan but fail to put forward a united front, allowing Higgins to put his proposal with very little opposition. A shrewd lobbyist he has foreseen broker opposition and succeeds in gaining grower support before the conference.
		The Australian government is asked to allow the British Australian Wool Realisation Association to organise the allocation of wool offered for sale in the current season at a minimum reserve of 9 pence per pound. While the government agrees to this proposal in principle, it does not agree to a minimum reserve of 9 pence per pound. Instead a minimum reserve of 8 pence per pound is set for six months.



1922		Wool prices stabilise above the agreed floor price so the scheme has little effect. However Higgins and his supporters come to believe that the wool market can be stabilised if prices are regulated, not necessarily by government but by a combination of brokers and sellers.