How Merino Country Started | 1993

Kerrie Richards grew up on the family's sheep & cattle station, "Clareborough" , south of Richmond,  half way between Townsville & Mt Isa, North West of Winton. She went to boarding school in Townsville, then on to University on the Gold Coast and when she couldn't get a job in the Big Smoke in Brisbane, went home and worked on the family farms and also went rouseabouting in the local shearing sheds before getting a job with Golden Casket in promotions and marketing. 

Founder of Merino Country Australia, Kerrie Richards. Clareborough Station. 1992

Working in the city was great fun and you can take the girl out of the country but not the country out of the girl. Kerrie went home to Richmond in 1992 and set up the "Kerrie Richards Rural Business Services" providing computerised record keeping and financial management systems to local graziers and small businesses - one of the very first mobile book keeping services utilising computers (Kerrie had a Brumby Ute and would drive from Longreach up to Julia Creek to see her clients!)

Kerrie Richards (with her infamous horse, Harry), her mum Sandra Richards and the Sheep Yards, Clareborough Station.

The early 90's were pretty tough for a lot of Graziers (farmers who graze sheep or cattle) in Western Queensland with drought, low commodity prices, removal of the the floor price of wool and many young people leaving the bush.

The Queensland State Government of the day decided to help rural communities to help themselves and initiated a program called Future Search. Georgie Somerset, current Agforce president, helped initiate a whole series of these brainstorming "Future Search " workshops around Queensland and in Richmond out of a district of eight hundred people, 80 turned up for the first workshop in May 1993.

The idea was for local people to have their input on what they wanted to see in their area in the Future and to look at value adding & business opportunities. Out of this a number of working groups were formed including Tourism, Beef, Horticulture, Water, Arts & Craft and of course a Wool group. 

Kerrie was the local co-ordinator working with Georgie Somerset, current President of Agforce, of the Richmond Future Search workshop and the subsequent working groups  with the discussions being how to value-add products from local resources such as sheep, cattle, sandalwood, pigs, prickly acacia and kangaroos. Many of the ideas that grew from that day are now evident in Richmond today - eg. Fred Tritton Lake, Kronasaurus Korner - great example of community backing itself!!

29th May 1993. Richmond Future Search Work Shop with Eighty Passionate locals. Community backing themselves.

Whilst Kerrie initially worked with all the groups, Merino wool held her attention and the Wool Grower group, Matilda Merino was born with passionate Merino producers from Richmond, Hughenden, Julia Creek, Winton, Longreach and Blackall connecting to try and take some control of their product & promote  wool locally.

At the time when wool growers sold their wool they would have to pay a compulsory 8% marketing levy on their gross sales of wool, prices were low, there was a huge stockpile of wool, you couldn't actually buy Merino wool products in the shops and as synthetics had flooded the market, there was no understanding of the qualities of wool.  

As education and knowledge is powerful, Matilda Merino decided to run a two day forum and key players from the Wool Industry including wool buyers, brokers, processors, knitters, designers etc came to Richmond to share with wool growers exactly what happens on the other side of the farm gate. This included a Top Making workshop to understand the blending requirements of lots of wool in processing.  

Whilst the forum was incredibly interesting the attitude from the brokers at that particular time was basically "don't you worry what happens, you don't need to know" which obviously made the wool growers resolute to find out more!

So Matilda Merino decided to have their own wool processed to follow it through the supply chain and eight growers put in 5 bales of wool each (approx. 10 tonnes of greasy wool) and sent it off to Italy to trial Kerry Packers new Non-Aqueous scouring process, it then went on to England as woven into fabric  and then made into suits which were then sold in Marks & Spencers. Each grower also got back fabric and many had their own garments made up in their own wool.

Some of the members of the group also developed businesses making other wool products including Merino T-shirts, wool doonas, sheepskin motorbike covers and seatbelt protectors. There were so many passionate woolgrowers who made this happen and it just goes to show the power of a community helping themselves and their neighbours!

Out of this grew "Wool Wares Australia" later becoming Merino Country Australia. A textile chemist from Melbourne, Dougal Pleasance, became Kerrie's mentor and helped her navigate the complex world of processing wool through to fabric and Kerrie developed her own lightweight, easy-care 100% Merino Jersey for every day wear!

Based in the shearers quarters at the family sheep & cattle station, “Clareborough”, in North West Queensland, our first brand name was "Ewe Too" and eventually this and the business name morphed into MERINO COUNTRY because that's where we came from and Australia is also "The" Merino Country - growing 80% of the world's Merino wool.

In those early days we didn't have internet, mobile phones or social media and Kerrie's family were still on a Party Line with 5 other sheep & cattle properties sharing one phone line (Clareborough's phone number was 36N - One long ring and One short ring). When they got Radio Digital Satellite towers and each station got their own telephone line and phone numbers things really changed especially as the family got a fax machine - modern technology connecting to the world!!

Passionate woolgrowers showcasing products made from Australian Merino at local Field Days - helping themselves and their neighbours and rural communities!

The first POP UP Shops! In the early years of Merino Country Kerrie did all the local Field Days and Agricultural Shows in Western Qld which eventually led to bigger things including co-ordinating the Qld Festival of Wool, Wool Parades & Pop Up Shops at Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney & Adelaide Royal Shows and a Wool Shop in Paddington, Brisbane. From Paddock to Paddington!

Founder of Merino Country,  Kerrie Richards, has always loved her sheep and  often had poddy (orphaned) lambs that needed looking after! Clareborough Station, North West Queensland. 

 

Read our Newspaper Clippings From 1993