Journey to a remote part of Tasmania and discover the passion and knowledge of two Australian superfine Merino woolgrowers. At ‘Kingston’, producing wool isn’t just an ordinary day job – it’s a way of life.
The story behind the wool
“We want people who don't know about wool, to buy wool. It’s such a fabulous product and you’re missing out on something fantastic if you don't wear it.”
That’s the wish of superfine woolgrower Lyndel Poole, who along with Simon Cameron operates ‘Kingston’ in Tasmania, producing some of the finest quality wool available.
What makes ‘Kingston’ so unique is the land itself. According to Simon, a large proportion is still in pre-European state.
“We want to look after it,” he says. “We’re not just selling wool - we’re selling the way that it’s produced, the way we look after our sheep and the way we look after the land that wool is produced from.”
It’s a story that these woolgrowers are passionate about and one they want to tell to the world.
“There’s a dream that someone’s going to want to come and see where the wool has actually come from,” says Lyndel. “That those bales they bought were filled by that particular sheep. That would be an ultimate goal, for someone to come and say ‘I’ve got something made from that lot of sheep’. It’s an ultimate dream to have that come true.”
Wool used to be graded with letters, explains Lyndel. “P was the top wool. Then all of a sudden some people started producing some even better stuff and they thought ‘what are we going to do, we’ve got to set this apart form everything else’. So they put 1PP and that’s how it came about. That’s the absolute top of the range.”
And with only 40 bales of 1PP produced last year, 2 of those came from ‘Kingston’.
“Even though the [financial] rewards aren't that great,” says Simon, “it just shows people what the country is capable of and what the sheep that Lyndel has bred here are now capable of achieving.”