From an old stone woolshed in Victoria’s Western District to mills across Asia, Mount Hesse connects wool’s past with its future.
Morning light spills through low windows and the scent of lanolin lies thick in the air. Inside the old stone woolshed at Mount Hesse, the handpieces are humming and the day’s first fleece is scooped off timber boards worn smooth by generations of boots.
It is shearing time, a scene that has played out here, in one form or another, for close to two centuries.
Spread across 8000 acres of volcanic plains in Victoria’s Western District, Mount Hesse has been grazing sheep since the earliest days of European settlement. The Kininmonth family bought the property in 1882 and held it for more than a century. Today it is owned by Südwolle Group, one of the world’s leading wool yarn producers, connecting this historic patch of Australian grazing country with textile mills across Asia.
For general manager Ed Brand, who has spent more than a decade at Mount Hesse, the focus remains firmly on Merino wool.
“I’ve always had a passion for Merino and wool,” he says.
At full stocking rates, the property runs as many as 25,000 adult ewes, managed by a permanent team of four. While many sheep producers have shifted towards meat production, Mount Hesse has doubled down on wool, gradually phasing out cropping in favour of perennial pastures and improved grazing management.
The property stopped mulesing in 2008 and has been working to reduce its reliance on chemicals and fertilisers. Soil testing, silage production and alternative nutrient sources are all part of the program, alongside extensive tree planting. Around 60 hectares have been established, with another three to four hectares added annually.
“Everything we do has a long-term focus rather than a short-term one,” Brand says.
That approach extends to the property's place in the global wool supply chain. Brand has travelled to China and Vietnam to visit the mills that process wool grown at Mount Hesse.
“You get that full experience and understanding of the whole supply chain, which a lot of people don’t get,” he says.
For Südwolle, the relationship works both ways, giving international customers a direct connection to the land and people behind the finished product.
Mount Hesse is also exploring new technology, from drones and electric tractors to different approaches to shearing, while measuring its carbon footprint and working towards further reductions in chemical use.
Yet for all the advances in technology, one challenge remains stubbornly familiar: the weather.
After moving from flood into almost three years of drought, the team has been forced to destock and reconsider how best to prepare for increasingly unpredictable seasons. Retaining more wethers, using drought lots and making additional silage are among the strategies being adopted.
“Drought teaches you more than a good year by tenfold,” Brand says. “It’s just not fun to go through at the time.”
The old woolshed and stone yards remain reminders of the generations who worked this country before him. But Mount Hesse's future is being shaped as much by what lies ahead as what came before.
Read more great regional stories in our paper. Issue 01 of The Burton is available now in RB Sellars stores and with every purchase online.
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Look Westward
Amid ambition and setbacks, is cotton reshaping the future of Western Australia’s Ord Valley?
A Cut Above
Meet the mates who bonded over meat, and saved their local butcher shop.
Bleeding Blue
A county rugby club fights for a home premiership with a town behind it.
The Long Thread
After 200 years of wool growing, Victoria’s Mount Hesse Station is adapting for a changing future.
From Steel
Horses, family and a life on the land inspire a rural sculptor turning discarded steel into art.
Of Salt And Sky
Rare floods transform Lake Eyre into an inland sea, revealing the beauty of Australia’s interior.
All Hands On Deck
Long days, breakdowns and big machinery as as harvest gets underway in Central Queensland.
Whatever It Takes
Life on a vast Northern Territory cattle station where no challenge is ever small.
