March, 26th

Melbourne

Last night we witnessed something very unusual for Australia - especially for this season - it rained 'till the late morning hours! But afterwards the sky was back to blue and beautiful with some nice clouds and temperatures that we only have in Bremen during the very few "real" summer days.

For today we have planned a trip to Geelong - by car. Geelong is about 60 kilometres south of Melbourne, on the ocean, and is still one of the most important seaports. This is the location for many companies involved in wool-manufacturing. Since 1993, the Bremer Wollkaemmerei has a subsidary company here called Geelong Wool Combing. 120 employees process the wool of 37.000 sheep day-in, day-out, seven days a week.

Andrew Spira, General Manager, welcomed us and showed us around the facilities. Being fairly new, this factory looks a lot different from the one in Bremen-Blumenthal, where they also comb and prepare Australian wool for further processing. Australia does not have such strict environmental protection laws as Germany, but in this factory they do refine all by-products very carefully. Lanoline is being sold to the cosmetic industry; organic waste, which is washed and combed out of the wool in a long process is turned into fertilizer. A two-man company sells this product with success. Another company operating from Melbourne is BWK Australasia, responsible for the wool-trading.

Claus Gyrn, head of this BWK-branch, has been kind enough to support our "Crossing-down-under" Adventure. BWKA tries to establish new ways in avoiding the public sale and buys directly from the farmers, no matter whether they have to offer 5 or 500 bundles. This is to the advantage of both the farmers and the BWKA.

In Geelong you can also visit a very interesting wool-museum that illustrates the whole chain of wool-processing from start to finish. Our last visit was to a special Zoo. Lots of birds to watch, but a few kangaroos as well. Unforunately there was a noisy schoolclass ahead of us and the kangaroos seem to have hidden.