Ipswich Woollen Company Pty Ltd

Ipswich Woollen Mills was a private company owned by 3 local men: James Walker (barrister), John Morris (manager) and  Edward Brown (medical doctor). They were all shareholders and directors of Ipswich Woollen Mills Company Pty Ltd.

In about 1911 Morris raised the idea of a woollen mill as an investment with Dr Brown. Morris then went to England to buy appropriate machinery for the mill with financing from Brown. Morris owned land at Tivoli and so operations commenced there in 1913. A couple of years later Ipswich Woollen Mills started in Joyce Street at East Ipswich, housed in a former cotton mill that had closed in 1913. Both sites were worked until 1917 when Tivoli was finally abandoned. 

Morris whose background was in engineering, and Leonard Grant Lawrence from Scotts Foundry, are credited with converting cotton milling apparatus to wool handling. Lawrence became the Chief Mechanical Engineer and Morris became manager of the works.

Ipswich Woollen Mills grew steadily despite the fluctuating wool trade causing short closures, and were a major employer in Ipswich for decades.. There were only 12 employees at the Tivoli mill,  25 in 1915, 80 in 1922 (50% females), 86 in 1924, 160 in 1932, and 200 in 1953.

The company produced flannel and tweed but their speciality was reversible "Wonga" rugs. In 1915 the Defence Department commandeered their entire output for the (World War I) war effort. Then for World War II in 1939 the Defence Department ordered tartan for 500 kilts for recruits of the Cameron Highlanders.

The first wool washing plant made in Queensland was delivered to the mill 29 September 1932. It was made here in Ipswich at Forrers. By the mid-1930s Ipswich Woollen Mills could accommodate 100 weaving looms. Immediately post World War II a new building was added to the mill site to manufacture worsted.

The Ipswich Woollen Mills partnership came into dispute in 1931 over shareholdings. By this time Morris had retired from the company where he had been Managing Director for 17 years.

Qld Woollen Manufacturing Company at North Ipswich bought Ipswich Woollen Mills in 1968. Subsequently the union became known as Australian Fabric Manufacturers. This entity was in turn purchased by Max Frost. They closed in the early 1970s.