Keith Cowan has been raising Angoras on his property Yarran Park for years.

In a bid to value add to the fleece he was producing, Mr Cowan has partnered with a mill in Toowoomba to produce quality yarn.

He said it was a prime example of Australia’s capacity to produce all-Australian products.

“We are doing the whole lot in Toowomba and while I don’t think any of us will make a million dollars out of this, it’s really just to prove a point that we can still value add to product in Australia if we just dig in and have a go,” Mr Cowan said.

“I think we could do so much in this country but it’s become so hard, there’s no support for people who dig in and have a go and try to produce a fully Australian product.

“The Angoras have been my passion for many years and they produce a super fine mohair, I wanted to value add to that and produce a really luxurious product that we can be proud of. As farmers we are always at the bottom of the ladder, we produce a bulk commodity and they give you a crap price then everyone else seems to make the money after that – we want to produce a product and take it right through and see some of that money come back to the farmer.”

Mr Cowan sends his fleece to couple Peter and Dianne Tatham who, after purchasing some old milling equipment from a CSIRO mill that was shutting down, opened Rosabella threads one of the only mills available to small producers in the country.

“The equipment was really filthy and Pete didn’t realise until he cleaned it all down that it was all made by Tatham & Sons in the UK and when he went through his family tree they were actually his ancestors back in the 1800s. He couldn’t believe it and he had no idea when he bought it. Mr Cowan said without the Tathams it would have been a battle to produce his yarn. “There is nowhere left in Australia that you can do this stuff, all our capacity to process fibres in Australia has been sold. It’s all gone.”