Part of a collection of photographs previously housed at Victorian Wool Processors (VWP), who were the last early stage wool processing company in Melbourne, and the second last in Victoria. The photographs were collected from other companies as they closed, and were donated to the museum by David Ritchie who was the General Manager at VWP. Victoria Wool Processors (Aust) Pty Ltd was founded by Jim Kim in 1983 as a dedicated international wool trading firm. Seeking greater quality control, the company opened its first physical processing plant in Melbourne in 1990 before scaling up to a state-of-the-art, 24-hour carbonising and scouring facility at Laverton North in 2002. For decades, it stood as one of the largest early-stage wool processing operations in the Southern Hemisphere, known for incorporating modern water-recycling and waste-management infrastructure. However, a severe domestic energy crisis and soaring natural gas prices forced the permanent closure of its manufacturing plant in December 2024, culminating in the company's official corporate liquidation in April 2026. This photo was previously in a frame with three others taken in 1990 at the modernised facility in Williamstown operated by Port Phillip Topmaking Pty Ltd. This image shows the backwashing process.Colour photograph showing industrial wool processing machinery during the backwashing process.victorian wool processors, early wool processing, textile industry, jim kim, topmaking, port phillip topmaking pty ltd, williamstown, pressing, backwashing

Image appears to show part of the backwash process when preparing dyed wool tops for gilling and recombing. The wool top slivers are fed into two or three bowls, the first bowl containing warm soapy water, the latter bowls warm water in order to rinse. Slivers pass though squeeze rollers and then into a dryer and dried to a specific moisture content, on exiting the dryer slivers are lubricated in order to reduce static and fed into a Gill box machine to begin the fibre parallelisation process. Backwashing is also sometimes used after the Carding process prior to first combing, it is a secondary wash and gives the end product a much cleaner result. Source: Greg Aldrige35mm coloured slide in presentation folder with wool sample set no 447. 6wool processing, top making, card clothing, combing, backwashing, gilling, slivers