Wool was one of the most important products in Britain, and had been since medieval times.

It was a cottage industry. Local farmers grew the wool. It was washed and cleaned locally, spun into yarn in single-roomed cottages by a family, then woven into garments in another small cottage — all done locally and on a small scale.

During the Industrial Revolution cotton became cheaper to import, and various machines were invented to make the process of manufacturing quicker and on a larger scale. These spinning and weaving machines were powered initially by water, but with the development of the steam engine several spinning or weaving machines could be connected to one engine, producing far more yarn or cloth than could be done by individual spinners or weavers. Here are some comparisons of cottage industry and mechanical processes:

Spinning

• In the 1730s it took one skilled worker at a hand-operated spinning wheel 65 days of work to produce 45 kilograms of cotton yarn on a single spindle or rod.
• By 1733 the development of the flying shuttle doubled that rate.
• By 1764 the ‘spinning jenny’ could handle eight spindles at once, so productivity increased eight times.
• By 1830 water- or steam-powered spinning jennys could be worked by one skilled adult with the help of two or three boys to operate up to 1600 individual spindles simultaneously.

Weaving

• In the 1730s a very good adult male hand weaver could weave two pieces of cloth of about 24 metres in a week.
• By 1823 a steam-loom weaver aged 15 attending two looms could weave seven similar pieces in a week.
• By 1833 a steam-loom weaver aged 15–20 and assisted by a child about 12 years of age, attending to four looms, could weave 18–20 similar pieces in a week.

These machines and processes were adapted to do the same for wool, especially after 1850, when merino wool from Australia, with its longer fleece length than previous wool, became more suited to machine spinning. This increased the demand for raw wool to keep the mills of Britain producing.

^{Adapted from B Trinder, Britain’s Industrial Revolution, Carnegie Publishing, Lancaster, 2013, pp. 389–393 and RL Hills, Power From Steam, Cambridge University Press, 1989, p. 244}

There was demand for both meat and wool from 1860, giving pastoralists a choice between cattle and sheep. Cattle were usually preferred during the early stages of pastoral occupation. They are hardier than sheep, able to cope with coarser feed (uncrushed materials requiring less preparation) and a greater range of environmental conditions, particularly in the wetter areas where sheep are prone to diseases such as footrot and catarrh. Cattle can range almost twice as far for water. They are better at defending themselves against attacks from dingoes, and they can be walked to market. But for an established pastoralist supplying both meat and wool, sheep offered better profits. Only in areas where environmental conditions were too harsh for sheep, such as the tropical north and the wetter areas, did cattle remain dominant.

^{JCR Camm and John McQuilton (eds), Australians. A Historical Atlas, Fairfax, Syme & Weldon Associates, Sydney, 1987, p.65}

Sheep are not native to Australia. They have hard hooves which compact the soil, and suppress the growth of many native grasses and plants. When compacted, the hardened soil does not support new growth; it cracks and dries out, and rain and wind cause soil erosion and degradation.

The continuous movement of sheep and cattle wore tracks in the soil, which resulted in erosion and damage to the banks of rivers, lakes and ponds.

The sheep competed with kangaroos for native grasses. Once eaten out, the native grasses found it hard to regenerate due to the disturbance to the soil. This destruction of native habitat caused a reduction in natural species variety.

The development of wire fencing enabled large flocks of sheep to be kept close to each other. This made them easier to manage, but resulted in the overgrazing of many areas.

^{Adapted from Ann Young, Environmental Change in Australia Since 1788, Oxford University Press, South Melbourne, 2000, p. 42}

The earliest merino sheep were carefully bred to maintain and improve the qualities of their wool.

Between 1850 and 1880 two breeders used breeding techniques to transform the short-stapled Spanish fine-wool sheep into new domestic types, with longer but fine and medium wool. These were Thomas Shaw in South Australia, and the Peppin brothers in the Riverina.

This transformation meant that the industrial machines used for cotton could be adapted and used to process this longer wool.

Breeds were also adapted to meet the environmental conditions in different places. Different areas, such as those with high rainfall or with hot and dry conditions, required differences in the sheep. These were achieved through selective breeding to achieve the best mix of fine wool on an animal that was also best adapted to survive the particular conditions.

^{Adapted from Laurissa Smith, ‘Wool powerhouse turns 150’, ABC News, 29 September 2011}

By 1820 there were about 120,000 sheep in Australia, mainly meat breeds.

In the 1820s 5000 merinos were imported to meet the growing demands of the textiles factories in Britain for raw materials.

By 1848 the colonies were exporting over 5500 tonnes of wool. This was more than any other sheep-producing country was sending to Britain. It was Australia’s main export earner.

By 1850 there were 16 million sheep in Australia, or about 39 sheep per head of population (compared to about 6 per head today).

By 1852 Victoria was exporting 9112 tonnes of wool from 6.5 million sheep. By 1860 there were 20 million sheep, and 106 million by 1892. The export of fleece had increased from 26,000 tonnes to 290,000 tonnes.

The Depression of the 1890s and the great drought of 1895–1904 halved sheep numbers. But the industry revived during the First World War as a result of the demand for wool for uniforms.

^{Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia 2003, Canberra, 2003, pp. 527–534}