My Escape to Terra Australis and My Part in the Near Death of the Australian Wool Industry

Australia’s history since Captain James Cook’s landing in 1770 has been recorded by a long list of historians. This book provides a shorter but equally absorbing account of life in Australia, tracing the life and times of young migrant Gerry Dubbin following his escape, in 1959, from a Britain on the long road to decline. On arrival in Melbourne and the ancient land that had filled his dreams, he found himself in the midst of people and a lifestyle very different to those in his hometown of Leeds. The story of his impressions and experiences is woven around the times, people and places that played a part in his life and work.

Initially the designer with a leading apparel manufacturer, Gerry also set up Australia’s first apparel technology training course at the Melbourne College of Textiles and later joined the Australian Wool Corporation (AWC), becoming its national merchandising manager.

In 1974, having been appointed to New York as AWC’s international marketing manager, Gerry continued to find himself embroiled in wool’s fight against the threat of synthetic fibres. There, he found himself having to deal with the ineffective management of AWC and its companion organisation, the International Wool Secretariat (IWS), both of which were significantly responsible for the collapse of the Australian wool industry in 1991.

The story of this remarkable chapter in Australia’s commercial history forms a book within a book, “Australian Wool: The Industry that Nearly Died” – a detailed look at the decades of inept leadership and ego-driven policies that eventually drove the Australian wool industry to disaster.