Located at the heart of Queensland's wool industry, Blackall has direct access to the water coming out of the ground of the Great Artesian basin at 65ºC, which is the perfect temperature for wool scouring. This will reduce the operating costs by about $4 million per annum compared to other evaluated sites.
Water Access from the Great Artesian Basin
Historically, producing in excess of 20 million kilograms of greasy wool, the region surrounding Blackall has played an important role in the development of Queensland's and Australia's wool industry. As the wool industry prospered, so too did regional centres like Blackall.
With early success in the cluster fencing program, the region is on the rebound. Lambing rates are increasing and the sheep flock is once again working. As a result, wool production in the region is expected to considerably increase in years to come.
Blackall is also the logical home of wool processing in Queensland. Its access to the warm waters of the Great Artesian Basin provides considerable cost advantages in wool scouring, and its rural location provides greater opportunities for water re-use through irrigation, which also reduces operating costs.
Centrally located, Blackall is in the middle of Queensland's wool producing areas and is on the main road-train enabled route between Melbourne and Darwin, which provides frequent and affordable freight opportunities for wool form southern production areas, if needed.
The industry stands at a cross roads: export the additional wool greasy or export a value-added product to generate additional jobs and economic activity.
Plant Location
Plant Catchment
The Queensland catchment for the QWool plant (now with a targeted capacity of 14 million kg per year of greasy wool per year) is currently producing 7.5 million kg per year. The peak production of the Queensland industry in 1990 was close to 90 million kg/yr.
This demonstrates that there is significant potential to process all Queensland wool without purchases from other Australian producing areas. It also demonstrates that once established, and the sheep herd grows, there is the possibility to replicate the Blackall plant in other areas.
Together, we could rebuild Australia's dominance in the global wool market.