Goulburn Wool Scour was so successful that it was chosen to scour the golden fleece, the most expensive bale of wool ever produced. GWS is showing that Australia doesn’t have to become a dumping ground for environmentally dubious factories in order to attract investment in this value-adding industry. Rather, it has shown that Australia can compete by playing to its natural advantages in wool production, and by being better at adding value than the competition. GWS is a model for internationally competitive industry in rural Australia.
In the 1980, European companies began to move wool scouring capacity to Australia due to environmental and land constraints in Europe. A French company, CIL (Compagnie D'Importation De Laines), was part of this trend, purchasing the Goulburn Wool Scour (GWS) in 1988. But it soon found that it had bought a plant with environmental problems of its own.
GWS responded by turning these problems into business solutions. It sought cleaner production through improved efficiencies. It undertook a program of research and development using technology adapted from the mining, food and steel making industries. It set a target payback period of two years for every measure to be adopted, reflecting the recession in the industry.
At peak production, the GWS plant processes around 50 tonnes of wool per day on two lines covering all grades of wool. Staffing operates on a basis of three shifts per day, five days per week.