Historical information

The wool was shorn from sheep of the Wyndarra and Rockbank bloodlines. A flock of 290 sheep were kept undercover at Kadinia, the property of the Appledore family from Brim in the Wimmera district of Victoria. Their record-breaking wool was produced by giving the sheep a special diet and providing each one with a UV-protective coat. Around 180 fleeces were selected for the million dollar bale.

The sale of the first bale of wool measuring below 14 microns was held in the Auction Room here at the National Wool Museum. Bidding began at $600/kg and steadily increased until there were only two bidders left. The bidders represented the Japanese firm Aoki International and Loro Piana of Italy. The hammer fell at $10,300/kg, with Aoki International paying $1,194,800 for the 116kg bale.

The fleece was scoured (cleaned) at the Goulburn Wool Scour, New South Wales. The degree of preparation and care taken with the task was extreme. The Scour closed production three days before and was extensively cleaned. On the day of scouring 12 tonnes of 17 micron wool was washed
to condition the water, then nine bales of extra super fine wool, worth over $300,000 was washed as a trial run.

Toabo Agaki Japan was employed to process the scoured wool into suit cloth. Taobo required the scoured wool to contain 0.5% residual grease, 12% moisture and a yield of 83kg. These requirements were met. The entire staff of the Scour wanted to be part of washing the best wool in the world. Without asking for payment both the night shift and afternoon shift crews assisted the day shift in the task.

The bale was fed into the scour in seven minutes and fitted into three bowls, half the scour. It completely disappeared into the dryer and the last wool was fed before the first wool was out. The clean wool was hand-packed into cardboard cartons and freighted to Japan. Aoki International, based in Yokohama Japan, cut three suit lengths from the cloth, then blended the remaining wool into an exclusive line of commercially-available suits. These suits are labeled Kadinia.

Physical description

Wool sample from the Million Dollar Bale