CSIRO closes after 40 years service to the industry - leatherbiz: Lead Leatherbiz

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CSIRO closes after 40 years service to the industry

05/12/2005

Australia’s CSIRO Leather Research Centre has closed its doors for the final time after serving the industry for 40 years. The CSIRO Leather Research Group was established in 1965 under Peter Mason with Jim Scroggie at the Parkville-based Protein Chemistry laboratory. It moved to new dedicated laboratories at Clayton in 1991 as the Leather Research Centre under the leadership of Peter Gordon and later Catherine Money.

Unfortunately, Australia began to see a dramatic downturn in the local finished leather industry during the 1990s - as larger footwear companies either moved their operations offshore or closed. In addition there has been growing competition for hides and skins from emerging leather manufacturing countries in Asia forcing prices to rise and reducing the overall viability of making leather in Australia. This situation was not helped by the effects of droughts on stock numbers. The net result for the Leather Research Centre was that there has been a contraction in the number of leather manufacturers in Australia. And consequently the industry support base, including sources for funding, justifying research disappeared and CSIRO had no option but to close  its leather research in June 2005.
 


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