OUTBACK LIFE
Women unravel the cotton story
A clutch of energetic rural women have been the movers in redefining the public image of cotton, with much of their effort going into telling the story of Australia's cotton industry from field to fabric in the innovative Australian Cotton Centre at Narrabri. NSW.
Story Kirsty McKenzie Photos Ken Brass
It seemed like a good idea at the time. It was 1995 and Longreach had its Stockman's Hall of Fame, Winton its Matilda Centre and Narrabri … well, it had a great location on the Newell Highway in northern NSW, the main arterial from Victoria to Queensland. And it was in the heart of cotton country, located between Emerald in Queensland and Menindee in south-western NSW, close to where Australia's first commercial cotton was grown. As the local Rotary Club members pondered at a meeting: wouldn't all those people travelling up and down the Newell like to stop for a couple of hours or days and learn more about cotton? The seed of the idea for a cotton interpretive centre had been planted.
Nurturing that bright idea was a painstaking process of community networking, coordination and fund raising, which came to fruition in July 2002 when the Australian Cotton Centre opened.
Full story Issue 32 Dec 2003/Jan 2004
