History of CSIRO Scour Closure

The history of the scour closure may be of interest to you all.This is what I believe happened based on conversations with those involved and correspondence I have received.

The CSIRO scour has already been closed once, but was forced to re-open and resume operations (on a part time basis). The closure occurred last year. In my opinion, the whole thing was handled in a bumbling and unprofessional manner by those at the CSIRO Geelong .

About 6 weeks before the closure, the then Minister responsible for the CSIRO & Senator Carr ( as Shadow Minister for Industry, Innovation,Science and Research) were given notice by the CSIRO, that staff were about to be made redundant at the Geelong CSIRO facility. They were not however, informed that the scouring division was to close.

Around this time, the CSIRO Geelong insisted that Goldfields Mohair Farm, Long Tops Fibre Processing & Meskills Woolworks sign new scouring contracts, which were binding until the 30th June 2008. Soon after the CSIRO scour was closed, with no notice given to customers or those with scouring contracts.

On the 7/9/07 Peter Sporle of Meskills Woolworks first learnt of the Scour closure.  He was having difficulty contacting someone at the CSIRO to secure a pick up date for fibre which he had contracted to CSIRO for scouring. He was first informed that the scour had been closed by a third party. Written notice of the scour closure was only provided once Peter Sproule began making a fuss.

Martin Williams,Deputy Chief CSIRO Geelong- Commercial (wrote a letter of notification, undated and Joe Clarke (Goldfields Mohair Farm) received this as an email attachment from Andrew Jones CSIRO Geelong on the 11/9/07.

After making no headway in negotiations regarding his contracted scouring work, Peter Sproule contacted the head of the CSIRO in Canberra; Dr Geoff Garrett. Peter pointed out that the CSIRO would be in breach of contract, if the scour shut its doors without fulfilling the conditions of the scouring contract that the CSIRO insisted he sign.

At Dr Garrett's intervention, the scour was put back into operation once again to fulfill scouring contracts. Peter also received an apology from Nigel Johnson, the Chief of the CSIRO Geelong Division.

Peter Sporle (Meskills)has provided us with a window of opportunity. It is my belief that without him, the scour would have closed, the equipment quietly sold overseas at scrap value & we would have only found out after the event.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Geelong CSIRO are planning to have wool growers discover that the wool mill equipment, purchased with their levy money, has been disposed of only once it is on a slow boat bound for China.