THE DESCRIPTION OF AUSTRALIAN WOOL

The system for the description of Australian wool developed over many years. Its origins lie in the aquisition programs which operated durin g the first and second World wars and it was refined during the 1960s. With the introduction of objective measurement of wool properties in the early 1970s it became necessary to modify the type system on a reg ular basis to take account of the new measurements. An unweildy typing system has evolved which is now a barrier to communication in the ind ustry. Few growers understand the typing system and a single type mean s different things to different people. many of Australia's important new customers have no understanding of the sytem at all. An Industry D escription is being developed by the Australian Wool exchange to provi de a clearer method of communication. it is based on a sytem trialed i n the 1980s and will come into place in July 1995.