Imminent Closure Of CSIRO Scour

The CSIRO has, for many years, run a small research scour at its Geelong Textiles and Fibre Division. The scour has supplemented income to the CSIRO Geelong Division by taking in small lot commercial contract work when the machine was not being used for research purposes. In many cases this work was the type that larger Australian commercial scours refused to take on, as the lots were either too small for their machines, or contained coloured fibre. The  CSIRO scour became an integral part of the development of the Rare Natural Fibre Industries. All of those Australian produced and Australian processed products made from Cashmere, Alpaca, Mohair and Coloured and Fine wools, that we see in shops and stalls at craft markets, fairs and farmers markets, will have been scoured at the CSIRO scour before being further processed by small boutique Australian textile processors.

The CSIRO is now determined to close down & sell their scouring plant. The closure of this scour will impact upon thousands of Australian individuals and small businesses, as well as a small number of large Australian Companies (who use the scour's research capabilities for pesticides and detergent development). A delegationfrom the Rare Natural Fibre Industry are fighting to keep the scour here in Australia; if possible at the CSIRO.

The fibre which is contract scoured by the CSIRO scour is made into high value goods, some of which is sold locally, but much of which is exported to Europe and other high end markets.One of our delegates is a fine example of this, Jemala ultra fine wool products, sells luxurious jumpers for 1100 euro in Paris.

According to the deligation's calculations and committments there is enough contract scouring work going through the scour for it to be a profitable business. The scour is NOT being closed down due to lack of future demand.

The scour is closing down because there has been a massive reduction in funds  coming into the CSIRO facility in Geelong over past years. Funds to run the CSIRO Geelong Textile and Fibre Technology division have traditionally come from a wool producer levies  matched by federal government grants. The wool clip has decreased rather dramatically over the past decade due to fewer sheep numbers (drought, low wool prices & Johnes Disease have all contributed) thus reducing funds raised from the wool levy. AWI (Australian Wool Innovations) is the body which currently decides how wool levy money will be spent. AWI has decided to greatly reduce the amount of levy money used for research & development & instead in their wisdom, they have decided to use levy money to focus upon the marketing of Australian wool. This decision has further reduced funds to the Geelong CSIRO facility. In order to survive the CSIRO has made a shift in focus from wool & animal fibres to high tech fibres.

The Chief of the Geelong Textiles & Fibre Technology division of the CSIRO has therefore set a very determined path to dismantle the wool infrastructure (although when the media or others press him on this he is not quite as forthcoming with this information, as he was to our delegation with the Minister's Chief of Staff in attendance). In his words to us..."The wool mill is now superfluous to our needs". The scour is part of the wool mill infrastructure.

The Head of the CSIRO Geelong Division is advising Rare Natural Fibre producers to send their fibre offshore for scouring; amazing advice given that the introduction of product embedded carbon is imminent. If scouring is done overseas then it will logically follow that subsequent processing will be done overseas and local small fibre processors will be forced to close through lack of work. So not only will we lose the ability to buy Australian grown and processed natural fibre products, but we will also lose the technical knowledge required to preform processing tasks. Scouring overseas is not a sensible option. Australian fibre industries need the CSIRO scour to remain in Australia and to be accessible for both research and contract work.

tags: textile_processing