In 1912, Mr. J. B. Henderson (2), President of Royal Society in Queensland estimated that state alone would throw away 20,000,000 lbs of lanoline a year, which at the wholesale price in Germany, 11d a pound, is approximately worth £1,000,000. As he asked - Would it not pay to have all our wool scoured, and keep this considerable sum in Queensland, instead of making a present of it to continental manufacturers? (3)
Wool washing or scouring on the Yarra; the dirt and grease removed from the wool added to the pollution of the Yarra.
Wool washing on the Yarra, 1872. Photographer: Charles Nettleton
State Library of Victoria H96.160/1729
Italy's request for lanoline in June 1915 was reported in many newspapers, firstly in The Herald -
Lanoline is urgently required in connection with Red Cross work in Italy, and Mr C. Catani, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, has authority to negotiate for purchasers. Inquiries which he has made recently have indicated that there is little, if any, to spare in Victoria. He urges that as lanoline is merely the fat of wool it ought to be possible in a great sheep-raising country like Australia to supply large quantities. This was one opportunity, he considered, for trade expansion. Mr Catani who has received advices regarding the shortage of lanoline, bismuth and alkaloids of certain drugs from his brother, Lieutenant-Colonel G. Catani of Florence, will be glad to give particulars to any business firms interested. (4).
Lieutenant-Colonel G. Catani was Carlo's older brother Giulio, born in 1848. He was a Doctor and the Superintendent of St John of God Hospital in Florence and during the War he was recalled from retirement to organise No. 2 Hospital in Florence, for the Red Cross Society, in order to provide for the reception of 60,000 wounded soldiers if necessary. Despite his 67 years, he has entered upon his task with zest. He has been given the rank of Lieut.-Colonel by the Italian Government (5).
The Herald expanded upon the supply of lanoline the next day and provided some interesting statistics -
Mr C. Catani, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, who is Italian by birth and an excellent Australian by adoption, has been authorised to see if he can obtain in Victoria a sufficient supply of lanoline for Red Cross work in Italy. He points out that this is a great sheep-raising country and that lanoline is the refined fat of the wool. As a fact, in 1913 Australia had more sheep than any other country in the world, the number being over 85,000,000 against 80,400,000 in the Argentine, 74,000,000 in the Russian Empire, and 52,300,000 in the United States. With that fact before us, it constitutes a reflection upon our intelligence and enterprise and upon our sense of legitimate self-interest that we have not a huge lanoline works in this country. (6)
Table Talk also reported in their signature style on Carlo's involvement
Mr. Carlo Catani, of the Public Works Department in Victoria, creator of Lake Catani and revealer of the grandeurs of the Buffalo and the beauteous possibilities of St. Kilda foreshore, has found for himself a legitimate war-time activity in these days when local landscape improvement is a drug in the market. He has heard from his brother, Lieut. Colonel Catani, at Florence, that lanoline is badly wanted by the Italians. Mr. Catani is by way of being a practical scientist as well as an engineer and a creative artist, and prospective makers of lanoline - the substance is a bi-product of the woollen industry, will find him an intelligent interlocutor for the Italian Government. (7).
The Weekly Times also reported on the lanoline issue as one of the neglected opportunities in the wool industry issue -
Mr C. Catani, Chief Engineer of the Public Works Department, has been authorised by the Italian Government to obtain in Australia a large quantity of lanoline for Red Cross purposes. Lanoline is a preparation made from the grease of the wool, and Australia being the chief wool-growing country, it was naturally supposed in Italy that the lanoline would be obtainable here. The Italians will no doubt be surprised to hear that we buy our lanoline from those countries to whom we sell the wool. Even the fat and other by-products from Australian wool-scouring works are thrown away instead of being utilised, as they are by the foreigners. There is not the slightest doubt that all these facts reflect upon our intelligence as a people. At first sight it appears to be a direct admission of incompetence which impels a country with 80 millions of sheep to send away the wool to be manufactured. It is hardly that, but it is an admission of lack of enterprise. (8)
In February 1916 a start had been made towards a lanoline industry, as the Weekly Times reported -
Mr F. Tudor, Minister for Trade and Customs, gave an assurance on February 15 that if a lanoline industry was started in Australia, it would be fully protected. Mr J. H. Chambers, who holds patent rights for a wool-scouring process by cold water, and Mr W. Melvin, the first manager of the Ballarat Woollen Mills, in an interview with the Minister demonstrated that it was possible to extract lanoline. Mr Melvin stated that with lanoline at 3/ a lb - it was now 6/ - the establishment of a lanoline industry would mean £22,000,000 a year to the Commonwealth. (9)
An advertisement for lanoline
The Argus, December 31, 1913 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/7274274
22 million pounds seems an extraordinary amount of money, that would have been a valuable addition to the Australian economy. It also seems extraordinary that we learnt nothing from the Great War lanoline shortage as in 1921 The Age reported that Australia was still not manufacturing lanoline -
time and again attention has been drawn to the colossal loss which Australia annually suffers from the non-utilisation of by-products. Yet little or nothing has been done to remedy the defect. It is literally true that millions of pounds are running to waste annually at various factories and works throughout the Commonwealth. A notable instance is that of wool grease, or lanoline, which is not being saved in anything like the quantities that one would expect in the largest wool-producing country in the world. (10)
In 1945, the newspapers were still talking about the production of lanoline as a potential new industry for Australia. An Argus article in June 1945 commenced with -
When we think of lanoline memory is apt to take us back to childhood days when some kindly soul applied this refined and soothing wool fat to a grazed knee or a chafe. It may seem a little strange at first to leam that wool fat might form the basis of new industries that would have the effect of increasing considerably the value of greasy wool generally. (11)
Trove list - I have created a list of articles on lanoline production, mainly connected to Carlo Catani's war time role on Trove, access it here.
Footnotes
(1) Various reports from my Trove list, here.
(2) John Brownlie Henderson (1869-1950) - see his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry here https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/henderson-john-brownlie-6633
(3) The Queenslander, April 6 1912, see here.
(4) The Herald, November 8, 1915, see here.
(5) The Herald, November 8, 1915, see here; A Labour of Love - the Public Works of Carlo Catani Victoria 1876-1918, by Isaac Douglas Hermann (published by the Author in 2018). Dr Catani died in Florence on January 22, 1921.
The Argus, March 21, 1921 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1741204
(6) The Herald, November 9, 1915, see here.
(7) Table Talk, November 11, 1915, see here.
(8) Weekly Times, November 13, 1915, see here.
(9) Weekly Times, February 19, 1916, see here.
(10) The Age, January 18, 1921, see here.
(11) The Argus, June 16 1945, see here.
