History of Item
Amalgamated Textiles was founded in 1923 “for the purpose of establishing a chain of woollen mills throughout Australia; each mill to undertake one or more of the particular processes of woollen or worsted” (‘Abridged Prospectus of Amalgamated Textiles (Australia) Limited’, 1923). Greg Ryen wrote the following history:
“At a meeting in June 1923, the company announced ‘that £70,000 of the capital for the Albury mill had been subscribed. The machinery had been ordered, and a site had been purchased.’ In July 1923 the company purchased 27 acres of land on the corner of Schubach and Bridge streets East Albury. The land had been part of the ‘Woodstock Estate’ and the Albury Banner reported that ‘the price paid to L C [Lionel Charles] Griffith was £2,500.’ By August 94,000 shares had been sold, including 77,000 to residents of Albury & District. Albury operations began on Monday February 9, 1925. The Banner commented that ‘Bradford Wool Tops are now being made in the Albury mills.’
Amalgamated Textiles became Albury’s first big manufacturing company providing employment and stimulating local economic growth. At their peak, they employed about 700 workers. Amatex Street in East Albury is named from the company name.
The company became known as Macquarie Worsteds Ltd in 1956. The company was taken over by General Investments Australia Ltd in 1987 and in 1988 that company posted a profit of $5.4m. Investment in the mill continued through the 1990s - in 1992 they announced that Albury was selected to become home for Australia’s largest wool manufacturing plant costing some $60m.
In 1994 the company changed its name to Macquarie Textiles Group Ltd. They were by now manufacturing 80% of domestic woollen cloth in Australia, and supplying nearly all the wool for uniform fabrics for the Australian Defence Forces.
Macquarie Textiles could manufacture and distribute wool-rich fashion fabrics, machine knitting yarns, woollen blankets, upholstery cloth, industry cloth, safety cloth and weaving yarns for both domestic and overseas markets. By 2000 they were said to inject $13.6m into the Albury economy through wages.
In December 2013 the Border Mail announced that ‘the company is selling the factory to move to an Albury warehouse with the business to focus on importing material from China and India. In 2017 the site is occupied by Mountain H2O, bottling spring water.” (Ryan, 2017, Amalgamated Textiles became Macquarie Worsteds. Albury & District Historical Society).
Macquarie Textiles permanently closed at the end of 2020.
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