The rarity of a new Australian made textile

By Peter Roberts

It shouldn’t be this way, but when a new textile is revealed that is made in Australia from Australian raw materials, processed locally, it has to be big news.

This is the case with the latest fabric produced by SME, Full Circle Fibres, a company described by the Australian Fashion Council as Australia’s only paddock to product cotton supply chain.

The tragedy of the loss of Australia’s TCF sector, despite its supposed comparative advantage in fibres, is well known.

Full Circle’s achievement against this tide of history is less well known.

The story begins with its founder, Brisbane textile technologist Meriel Chamberlin who worked for big brands and small fabric and garment manufacturers and their supply chains in Europe, Asia and Australia.

Chamberlin said: “I am on mission to make the circular economy the new normal – beginning with the end in mind is the only place to start.”

Hence the need for Australian grown, knitted or woven, dyed and finished fabrics, fully traceable for every stage.

Producing the first trial batch of her latest textile (pictured), a mix of Australian wool and cotton, has been a game of patience, she said.

“Fabrics are finished, Jersey knitted and scoured in Melbourne – time for the garment trials and performance testing.

“It feels very soft and comfy, how will it wash and wear?

“Commercialisation is a completely different sport to concept sampling.”

The issue, which Australia apparently has to relearn, is to figure out the fine tuning of what turns something possible as a product into something a brand could actually commit to trusting will deliver batch after batch for customers.

The run was funded in partnership with the Country Road Group Climate Fund, and uses available Australian processes at every stage.

Chamberlin took to social media to thank LoomTex for dyeing the fibre, the Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University for spinning the yarn, Australian Super Cotton for the cotton, Michell Wool for the Wool, Topknit for Knitting, and Flickers for Scouring.

Some of these names are well known, some date way back such as Mitchel Wool, and some have recently come to the fore following reorganisation such as LoomTex. And Deakin of course is a rare university plugged into local industry.

“It’s not just been fun to blend Australian Grown wool and cotton together..

“We’ve purposely tried doing it in a very specific super low impact order of processes, to figure out not only the benefit of being local, and making something lovely, but how to reduce the total energy and water impact.

“(And now)… back to Deakin to do the technical testing.”

Picture: Meriel Chamberlin