A remarkable coincidence over the next year will put the spotlight on the rich history of the Australian wool industry.
Elders Ltd will open its massive new wool handling complex in the western suburbs of Melbourne, complete with automated handling machines.
At the same time, three developers are teaming up to transform the landmark Younghusband wool stores in the inner city, converting the 120-year-old red brick buildings to luxury offices and apartments.
It was the Younghusband firm which was taken over by Elders back in 1971 even though it's still their name which famously stretches high above popular Kensington.
It was a form of corporate revenge for the Goldsbrough company which had commissioned the first of the wool stores at Kensington in 1902 then made way for Younghusband Row and Company.
It was Elder Smith Goldsbrough Mort Ltd which swallowed up Younghusband.
These massive wool stores were built across many acres less than 4km from Melbourne's CBD at a time when wool was a national treasure and its builders could not have imagined how big the city would grow.
The new Elders wool store is being built next to the prisons at Ravenhall, in today's outer suburbs but in a century? Who can tell.
Elders is spending $25 million on the Dexus-built 35,000 square metre warehouse in Melbourne.
It is moving its Western Australian wool business headquarters, show floor and woolstores to a former wool processing precinct at East Rockingham.
Elders managing director and chief executive officer Mark Allison said the big investment into new wool stores "would revolutionise wool handling".
Elders has placed 700 solar PV panels showcasing the company's logo on the enormous build's roof.
The facility will store more than 60,000 bales of wool and provide the ideal location for transport links to the Port of Melbourne, which handles 75 per cent of the east coast's wool exports.
It shares the Ravenhall industrial park with Hello Fresh, Amazon, Scalzo Foods and Myer and is close to the Caroline Springs train station and just off the Western Freeway.
Elders' national wool handling operation will be based around two centralised hubs (Melbourne and Perth) supported by an extensive network of receival centres.
Its existing three selling centres in Yennora, Brooklyn and Spearwood will remain in operation.
The floor space at the Ravenhall centre will be the equivalent of 1.5 MCGs, and the volume is something like 235 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
With its 22 automated guided vehicles, it will be able to process more than 300,000 wool bales each year.
The industrial subdivision's builder, Dexus, says it is the tallest warehouse they have ever been involved with at 16.8 metres in height.
Elders handled about 350,000 wool bales in the last financial year.
But back in 1900 it was the Younghusband name which dominated wool broking as it has dominated this now trendy inner suburb for a century.
Merchant Isaac Younghusband registered Younghusband & Co Ltd in Victoria in 1889, and in 1902 took over the Kensington site to become Younghusband Row and Company.
In 1920 the company became known as Younghusband Limited before it was absorbed by Elders in 1971.
After wool handling moved to other sites around Melbourne the old stores were used for a variety of purposes, including at one stage storing costumes for the Australian Ballet.
Everyone knew the imposing buildings, seen as distinctly Australia, had to be kept but no-one knew how to use such a large space.
In the past decade, ownership has chopped and changed and today they are being developed by a consortium of developers - Irongate, Canadian's Ivanhoe Cambridge and local construction firm Built.
The 1.57 hectare development aims to transform the 122-year-old wool warehouse into a $400 million-plus mixed-use project.
It aims to blend office and retail space in a bold urban regeneration project.
The first stage, to be completed by mid 2024, will preserve and showcase the heritage of the 122-year-old architecture of the two existing historic woolsheds.
It aims to create 17,560 square metres of office space with a new town centre, village-style retail offerings and an "activated" retail laneway.
Chris McLennan
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
ACM national rural property writer based in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria. Career journalist. Multi award winner.
