Ripping yarn: How Australia grew a $4bn cotton industry

Australia’s cotton industry is booming and now instead of exporting the entire crop there is a push to revive the local textile industry.

Cotton crop is heading for a record this year.

Queensland is helping to drive a record cotton crop this year with most of the multi-billion dollar commodity being exported through the Port of Brisbane.

Cotton Australia general manager Michael Murray tells City Beat that the national crop is set to top last year’s all-time high record of 5.5m bales helped by good growing conditions and more farmers including cotton in their rotation.

Toowoomba-based Murray says cotton is now approaching a $4bn industry across the country, a massive bounceback from 2019 when drought meant only 600,000 bales were picked that year.

Murray says there is now a move to revive the Australian cotton textile industry that died two decades ago rather than export the entire crop to spinning mills in Asia

On average around half of the national crop is handled through the Port of Brisbane, with shipments going to 10 different markets. Last season, about 35 per cent went to Vietnam with demand remaining strong for our cotton throughout south-east Asia.

Good pre-planting water storage levels and near perfect growing conditions over the summer has resulted in the bumper crop, particularly in the port’s catchments areas of St George, Dirranbandi and The Gwydir Valley.

Michael Murray says cotton exports are booming.

Murray says south-east Queensland and NSW remain the main growing areas but the Northern Territory and Far North Queensland were also emerging as new cultivation areas. “There are some growers now on the Atherton Tablelands who may also have originally grown things like sugar cane or maize,” says Murray. About two thirds of the crop is grown in NSW and a third in Queensland with 80 per cent produced on family-owned farms.

Australian cotton was in strong demand on global markets due to its quality and sustainability. Murray says insecticide use had been cut by 90 per cent over the past few years as disease resistant varieties were introduced. Cotton’s reputation as a “thirsty crop” was unwarranted and it did not use more water than grain and other popular crops.

All of Australia’s cotton was exported - returning to this country as finished clothing and sheets - but there was a move to reintroduce a spinning industry.

“Spinning disappeared in the early 2000s because of high labour costs,” says Murray. “Labour is not so much of an issue now because of automation, but the problem now is energy costs.” In 2003, receivers were appointed to Brisbane-based Rocklea Spinning Mills after almost 60 years as a major supplier of cotton to the Australian textile industry. The company employed 120 people in Queensland, and a further 100 at Moe and Tullamarine, in Victoria.

Picker in action at Camp Cotton 2023.

Road ahead

The Asia Pacific Architecture Festival is being held in Brisbane until 23 June exploring why design matters to our culture, economy and sustainability.

One of the panel discussions at the festival will be on revitalising Racecourse Road, the city’s original high-street in Ascot/Hamilton that in more recent time has lost a little of its lustre.

A panel, including Blight Rayner Architecture’s Michael Rayner andNoel Robinson Signature Architects’ Noel Robinson, will share their expertise and make recommendations for the road’s transformation. The idea is to preserve the rich heritage of Racecourse Road while embracing modern needs and trends.

Fittingly the discussion on Tuesday will be held in Hamilton’s St Augustine’s Church, the century old house of worship whose stained glass windows were designed by renowned painter, illustrator and stained glass window designer William Bustard.

Michael Rayner is a prominent architect in Brisbane.