Australia

With the establishment of CSIRO, in Australia and DSIR in New Zealand in the late 1920's. wool research was taken up by various branches of these organisations.

However real growth only came when in 1949. Dr. F. w. G. White (now Sir Frederick White. FRS) a graduate of Victoria University and a former Professor of Physics at the University of Canterbury, after careful examination of wool research programmes in northern hemisphere countries, and having realised how inadequate this was to cope with the immense problems affecting Australia's main farm export, decided that much more had to be done by Australia, and in Australia, on textile and other scientific aspects of wool. His recommendations resulted in the establishment by CSIRO of three wool research laboratories, known today as the Division of Protein Chemistry, located in Melbourne, the Division of Textile Physics, in Sydney, and the Division of Textile Industry, in Geelong.

On sheep and wool production problems CSIRO's Clunies-Ross Memorial Laboratory at Prospect. Sydney, is the principal research centre, but much scientific work in these fields is also proceeding at McMaster Laboratory. Svdney, the Division of Plant Industry. Canberra. and Division of Biochemistry and Animal Nutrition in Adelaide, all of which have outstations engaged in localised problems. Many of the universities, in particular, the University of New South Wales. Sydney, also undertake scientific studies into a variety of sheep, and wool problems.

When both production and textile research are considered together Australia is at present making the greatest contribution of any one country through scientific research into problems affecting the sheep and wool industries, this being done in its three textile research and in its five sheep and wool research laboratories and their outstations.