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	Industry Milestones

1925-1949: The Great Depression and World War II



1925		Key sectors of the US industry meet informally to discuss the unsatisfactory state of the wool industry. At this meeting the suggestion is made that there was a great opportunity to educate the public concerning wool, its manufacture and the fabrics made from it.



1926		Flowing from this meeting in the US a committee known as the Publicity Committee of the Wool, Woollen and Worsted Trades, iss formed. This produces a number of publications, and organises meetings of the industry in Boston, Philadelphia and New York. As a result the committee requests the respective organisations that had appointed the committee members to select two delegates to a proposed Wool Council of America which is to establish a more permanent organisation.
		In Australia the British Australian Wool Realisation Association is liquidated.



1927		In the US the Publicity Committee of the Wool, Woollen and Worsted Trades is disbanded owing to the disinclination on the part of important manufacturers to accept positions on its Board of Directors.
		The International Wool Textiles Organisation (IWTO) is formed. IWTO is born out of an arbitration agreement signed between the representative bodies of the British and French wool-textile industries. This arbitration agreement, designed to assist the settlement of disputes between contracting parties within the industry, later evolves into what is now known as the ‘IWTO Blue Book’ published in English and French, then the ‘world’ languages. IWTO is established to address commercial issues arising from the trading of wool and wool products, not promotion or marketing.



1928		The Wool Institute, is established in the USA. Its objectives are: stabilising the US market through influencing mills to adopt a uniform system for estimating costs; maintaining opening prices throughout the selling season; and investigating what could be obtained through advertising.



1929		First public auction of wool is held in Newcastle, New South Wales, sponsored by the New England, North and North West Producers Co. Ltd.



1930		A bill in equity is filed in the US District Court in New York alleging violation by the Wool Institute of antitrust laws. No testimony is taken but a consent decree is entered simultaneously with the filing of the bill, effectively terminating the Institute.



1931		Major wool producing countries in the Southern Hemisphere recognise the need for a wool promotion and research organisation to promote the use of wool both in competition with alternative fibres and by the creation of new demand. The Commonwealth Wool Inquiry Committee is formed.



1932		The Commonwealth Wool Inquiry Committee reports that costs of production are a major factor impacting on the profitability of the industry.



1935		In the USA wool manufacturers, dealers and growers form an organisation ( Associated Wool Industries) to promote the use of wool. Its objectives are: informing the public of desirable wool merchandise and its advantages; stimulating the availability of desirable wool merchandise in the wholesale and retail markets: aiding retailers toward more effective and more profitable selling of wool merchandise; and educating the general public and retailers about wool, its manufacture and its advantages. Funding is to be provided via a voluntary contributions from the industry sectors.
		The Australian Wool Growers Council petitions the Australian Government to establish a levy system for funding wool promotion.



1936		The Australian Wool Board is established at the behest of the Australian Woolgrowers Council. The parliaments of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa pass legislation enabling a levy on wool growers for wool promotion. Initial levy was 6 pence per per bale.



1937		International Wool Secretariat (IWS) is set up as a non-profit organisation to promote wool using levy funds generated from wool growers in member countries. Initial members are Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Each member country has an equal say in IWS's affairs, with all decisions requiring a unanimous vote. .



1938		In the US the budget of Associated Wool Industries is cut to 40% of the first year, due to limited financial support by growers and lagging support from other industry sectors.



1939		In the US Associated Wool Industries terminates its activities
		With the outbreak of World War II the Central Wool Committee is re-established in September. The Committee is responsible for dealing with arrangements made for acquiring wool produced in Australia.



1941		The Central Wool Committee (CWC) Board agrees to establish its first official wool testing house. Its primary function is to provide accurate yield test results for a range of standard wool type samples, against which appraisal staff can monitor the accuracy of their own yield estimates.
		This first yield testing house is established at 17 Randle Street, Sydney, headed up by Mr Martin Freney, seconded to the CWC by the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Division of Industrial Chemistry - Wool Processing Section. His first Chief Chemist is Mr Menzie Lipson - a colleague at the same CSIR Division.



1942		The CWC Report for the 1941/42 season foreshadows the local establishment of official Conditioning Houses. It highlights the fact that, although Australian semi-processed wool is being sold on the Bradford Standards of condition, under which the seller is entitled to deliver wool with moisture regains of 16% for scoured and 17% for carbonised, such high levels of regain are rarely present under Australian conditions when bales were weighed for invoicing and shipping purposes.
		By selling wool on unconditioned local mill weights, Australian exporters are missing out on their entitlement to sell a standard amount of water for the price of wool and, importantly, any moisture uptake during the 4-5 month shipping voyage to the Northern Hemisphere yields a windfall profit for the importing buyer only.
		In October the CWC agrees to establish an additional testing house in Melbourne. CSIR again agrees to make a staff member available as Officer-in-Charge.



1943		The Melbourne CWC laboratory commences testing operations. Dr Rodger H. Watson, from the Animal Nutrition Laboratory in Adelaide takes up the position of Officer in Charge.



1944		J.R. McGregor and N.W. Yeo write to the Chief Appraisers in South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA), Mr H.W. McGregor and Mr A. Gibson, respectively, instructing them to make suitable premises available for the installation of conditioning ovens and stressing that the use of these facilities was “…only for the conditioning of wool processed by CWC”. These are not to be Public Conditioning Houses.
		A conditioning oven has been set up in a new building attached to the CWC Store in East Fremantle, Western Australia . A similar facility is established in CWC Standard Store “Z”, in Rosewater, South Australia.
		Australia's Ministry of Post War Reconstruction's Textile Advisory Panel recommends a Textile Research Section of CSIR (it became CSIRO in 1949) be established to become the world centre for research on wool. The Government agrees to establish a Wool Research Trust Fund (WRTF) into which the Government will make an annual payment of 2/- per bale. Growers will also contribute 2/- per bale, half of which would go to research and the other half to promotion. The fund is managed by a Wool Reseach Committee. (Australia Ministry of Post War Reconstruction, Secondary Industries Commission, (1) Textile Advisory Panel Report No. 2 Wool, (2) Review and Recommendations, March 1944. )



1945		At the end of the War the stock of Australian, New Zealand and South African wool in the ownership of the United Kingdom Government is 10.4 million bales. The four governments form a joint organisation called, U.K. Dominion Wool Disposals Limited, to market and sell the stockpile, together with future clips, in an orderly fashion to ensure the stability of wool prices using a floor price..
		Within Australia in November the Australian Wool Realisation Commission replaces the Central Wool Committee. It has the responsibility for disposing of the wool stockpile purchased during the War
		Enabling legislation for the Wool Research Trust Fund is passed by the Australian Government.
		The Wool Consultative Council is established for the purpose of providing advice on issues concerning the wool industry in Australia.
		The Australian Commonwealth Government passes the Wool Use Promotion Act, restricting the Australian Wool Board's function to promotion.
		Wool promotion levy is increased, at the request of wool growers, to 2 shillings per bale. The Government contributes 2 shillings per bale to fund research.
		Central Wool Committee is disbanded and responsibility for its laboratories is passed to the Australian Wool Realisation Commission (AWRC). N.W. Yeo is appointed as the Executive Member of AWRC. J.R. McGregor decides to return to his wool buying and exporting business in Sydney, J.W. McGregor & Co Pty Ltd.



1946		The South African Government passes the Wool Act which inter alia establishes the South African Wool Board.
		The Australian Govermment sets aside $14M of residual profit from the wartime wool marketing operations in a special fund to aid the wool industry, mostly to finance research.
		AWRC Meeting held on 6th & 7th February decides to close the Melbourne laboratory by the end of the month, to close Sydney at the end of June, to cease all research activity, and to allow the still to be appointed Chief Technical Officers (later known as Chief Valuers) to retain sufficient testing equipment to support their buying-in activities only.



1947		IWS sets up offices in Belgium, France and Italy.
		The Chief Valuers continue to operate yield testing facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Fremantle exclusively to support AWRC’s own purposes, but their testing workloads fall as buying-in rates diminish and stockpile disposal progress.



1948		IWS sets up in Canada, Holland, Sweden and Switzerland.
		The AWRC is again faced with the prospect of its valuers having insufficient access to corrective test data, this time due to the lack of wool to sample, so the Board decides to invite buyers to submit their samples for free testing.