Commonwealth Woollen Mills

Built for the Department of Defence on 13 acres at North Geelong given by the Geelong Harbour Trust (the land was transferred on 7 February 1914) and completed in 1915, as one of the factories the Commonwealth set up in the years before and during the First World War to make Australia self-sufficient in defence supplies.

Offered for sale by tender as a going concern in about 1922 and sold to an Australian syndicate, which ran it privately as the Federal Woollen Mills; federal Labor members criticised the sale of what they regarded as a profitable government enterprise. The year 1923 is an estimate: it rests on contemporary newspaper reports of the tender and sale, which appeared around 1922, and on a local history account that dates the new frontage added for the new owners to 1923; the exact date, the buyer's corporate name and the terms of the sale are not confirmed.

• Spinning and weaving of woollen cloth for military uniforms

Last in the portfolio of Department of Defence.

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Some dates or links for this organisation are uncertain. Corrections are welcome.