Kangaroo Island World
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Kangaroo Island World
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| Wool production on Kangaroo Island is as old as official European settlement. When the English explorer, Matthew Flinders discovered the Island in 1802, he found no evidence of human habitation. However, as the availability of water, seals, salt and kangaroos became known, sealers and whalers began to call at the island and to use it as a base for their activities. A few hardy souls settled permanently on the island, often with Tasmanian or mainland Australian Aboriginal wives, farming the land and gathering salt and skins to trade with vessels as they called. They grew grain crops, potatoes, onions and even peaches. They had some domestic animals, but no sheep. It was left to the official settlers who arrived at Kingscote in 1836 to found a new colony in southern Australia, to introduce these. One of the early sealer settlers was William Walker who lived with his Aboriginal wife Sally, at the eastern end of American Beach. When the official settlers arrived, William fitted nicely into the new scene, later taking up a lease on the land where he lived and building a 20 ton cutter, the “William” which he used to trade between the island and mainland. The first recorded shipment of wool from Kangaroo Island was in 1847 when ten and a half bales left Kingscote on the cutter “Resource”. Walker bought sheep from one of the first “official settler” families, the Calnans, who had settled near Kingscote, bartering a bushel of wheat for each sheep. Later he sold 500 sheep for 1,200 pounds to Thomas Willson. By 1848, eighteen more bales of wool were consigned to Adelaide and it could be said that the wool industry was firmly established on Kangaroo Island. Today, 20,000 bales of clean, soft handling wool are produced annually on the island. The soft, maritime climate and assured rainfall suit wool production perfectly, giving a quality that is hard to match. Wool growing is chemically cleaner than most other fibre production and demands less of Australia’s scarcest resource, water. Convinced of the superior qualities of island grown wool, a small group of islanders decided to manufacture and market it as a regional product. And so “Kangaroo Island Classics” was born. The wool for hand knitting and for the knitted garments has been selected from several Kangaroo Island clips which gives the perfect fibre mix for garments that island farmers can be proud of, and wearers will love to own. The wool has been processed by G H Michell, an Adelaide based company founded in 1870. Their long experience as the largest wool processors in Australia and purchaser of 17% of the nation’s clip, has given us confidence that our product will always be prepared to the highest standard. Their special machine wash treatment means that your garment will become even softer with washing and retain its shape wear after wear. |
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