Lainie Anderson: To all small businesses in SA having a go despite tough times, take a bow!

THE three SA businesses just rolling their sleeves up and getting the job done without fuss.

Professor David Lewis, of Muradel, which turns old car tyres into feedstock for other products.

It’s only natural that South Aussies crave big cures such as a $50 billion submarine build.

The highest unemployment in the nation and the imminent demise of car manufacturing will do that to a state.

But good things come in small packages, too, and collaboration and clever thinking are not confined to the heavy hitters.

Three separate stories made me excited during the week about the future of SA – not on any epic scale, but small signs of company “can-do” and a government that is, indeed, agile.

Silver Fleece is a Kilkenny-based woollen mill that’s been manufacturing Test jumpers for the Australian cricket team for 40 years. Who knew?

With 18 full-time staff and an annual turnover of up to $3 million, the company also supplies Aussie schools and the RAA, which ran a uniform design competition with TAFE students in 2012 and awarded the knitwear contract to Silver Fleece.

It’s one of few commercial woollen mills remaining in Australia, and managing director Cathy Barton says quality, customer service and cutting-edge technology are king.

Cathy Barton, the owner of clothing company Silver Fleece which makes Test jumpers for the Australian Cricket Team.

That’s why she’s embarking on a wool-provenance program with Southern Flinders farmers and wool processor Michell to ensure her wool can be traced to the sheep’s back in country SA.

“Sourcing wool locally is about more than just a warm, fuzzy feeling,” says Cathy, who joined the company in the 1970s and bought it in 2003.

“It’s about being able to tell a better story about our products, and supporting local businesses and jobs, which is exactly what our customers do when they buy from Silver Fleece.”

In the struggling steel city of Whyalla, a promising story of industry diversification can be found in Muradel, a biofuel producer converting car tyres, municipal waste biosolids and algae into feedstock to make other products.

It is a joint venture between the commercial development arm of the University of Adelaide, WA’s Murdoch University and commercial partner SQC.

With the help of federal and state grants, they’re aiming to demonstrate the commercial viability of technology that’s already attracted the attention of a Japanese cosmetics giant looking to replace environmentally devastating palm oil with oil from algae.

Last, but not least, there’s Micro-X, a cutting-edge medical device manufacturer that was lured across from Victoria with a one-year, $3 million State Government loan to develop X-ray units that weigh just 80kg compared to traditional 600kg machines.

One of the first things managing director Peter Rowland did when he arrived at Tonsley was phone Holden, hoping to steal their best workers to create an assembly line for X-ray machines.

Holden’s GM not only recommended key staff but he also offered his value-management design team to consult for a few days, gratis, to study Micro-X’s designs and suggest ways to cut costs.

Amid growing global interest, the Micro-X workforce will soon expand to 10 and production for sale is expected by year’s end.

Meanwhile, they’re also working with the Department of Defence to convert the technology into bomb-detecting robots.

“When government says ‘we have a strategy’, you expect to be given a brochure, but I’ve never had a meeting like the one we had with the SA Government,” says Peter, who tried but failed to win similar Victorian Government support.

“We were blown away by the sophisticated thinking of the government around establishing a medical devices manufacturing industry on the back of the new RAH and the SAHMRI building.”

The $3 million loan ensures manufacturing is based here instead of offshore, and also guarantees specialised local suppliers – in everything from plastic-injection moulding to carbon composites – reap the flow-on benefits.

This week’s submarine announcement is a huge confidence booster for a state that’s had its fair share of knocks, but it’s not a silver bullet.

Our economy will always rely heavily on the determination and ingenuity of small business owners having a crack.

So to those of you out there, quietly striving to keep your business in the black and your workers employed, take a bow.

AND ANOTHER THING ...

■ It’s been noted that PNG’s decision to close the Manus Island detention centre has come at a shocking time for the Turnbull Government. But sadly, history actually shows the opposite: asylum-seeker chaos is a vote winner for the Coalition. Regrettably, there seems to be no humane solution to this problem that won’t encourage more asylum seekers to attempt the trip to Australia by boat. So cruelty remains Australian policy.

■ Finally saw Eddie the Eagle this week, a semi-biographical flick about British ski jumper Michael “Eddie” Edwards who became the unlikely hero of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. What a glorious, uplifting reminder that winning isn’t everything.