From the 1840s the practice of dumping wool became widespread. This was the process of compressing the station wool bales so that they took up less space, and reduced shipping costs. Three compressed bales strapped together would take up about the same space as one bale which had not been compressed. John Grice & Co., for example, dumped station wool bales at Naracoorte before railing them to Kingston for shipping.
Ships in the wool trade from South Australia often carried copper ingots as ballast for the return voyage to Britain. What space there was left was filled with dunnage such as hides, and loose bark for tanning.