Farmer wants a date

Sam Coulton casts his eye over the picking of the family's irrigated cotton crop.

Soon these fluffy white puffs of cotton will be transformed into luscious swaths of rich fabric that will form the foundation of Goondiwindi Cotton's next collection.

"Yields and quality are good," smiles Sam. Even better, they already have sub-soil moisture for the coming winter crop season. "Things don't look too bad in our part of the bush at the moment."

It's a welcome change. In recent years a lack of water has slashed their cotton production.

"If you chop your income by 70 percent each year for the past five, things get a bit tough."

In a bid to counteract the variability of farming and "take the pressure off the acre", the Coulton family entered the fashion industry in the early 1990s, launching their classic country clothing label, Goondiwindi Cotton.

The Coulton brothers, Sam, Ben and Dave are known for their bold moves. In 1973 the North Star brothers bought the Boggabilla farming block Alcheringa.

"A flood at the wrong time just about cleaned us out completely."

Sam says they robbed Peter and Paul to raise the finances to plant the first irrigated cotton crop in their region.

"It was one last-ditch effort to get up and going again."

The cotton was harvested in 1978 and from that first success, the Macintyre Valley cotton industry has grown to cover 70,000 hectares in a good season.

Now 17 years on from their launch, Goondiwindi Cotton produces 20,000 garments a year, supplying 200 retail outlets across Australia.

There is also a concept store in Goondiwindi as well as Kenmore in Brisbane, and plans to open another on the Gold Coast later this year.

It's been a long journey. Their first seamstresses were inmates at the Long Bay Jail in Sydney. From there they moved closer to home using the Boggabilla TAFE to teach local indigenous women to sew their products.

"When the ladies started, they were producing a t-shirt every fortnight - in the end they were producing one every 22 minutes," Sam says.

However, the production line began to fray when the company's fabric manufacturers, first in Sydney, then Melbourne, were unable to consistently meet Goondiwindi Cotton's specifications and produce a quality fabric on time. "They had an attitude that near enough was good enough, and it's not."

Like so many others, Goondiwindi Cotton was forced to send its raw product offshore to Hong Kong for manufacturing.

"It's about 10pc cheaper to have garments manufactured in Hong Kong. The quality is 110pc and timing and delivery is 110pc, and that's what you have to have."

Sam laments that when they started the business there were nine spinning mills in Australia and now there is just one. "Everybody has gone offshore because they've all had the same problems as us."

However, Sam maintains that the lion share of profits are retained at home.

Standing among the racks of their main store in Goondiwindi, Sam reaches for a hot pink blouse to make his point. "When you buy a $100 Goondiwindi Cotton shirt, $80 is left in Australia and only $20 goes offshore."

Sam fingers the soft material of the blouse as he hangs it back in place. Despite the obvious quality, Goondiwindi Cotton's expansion into interstate markets hasn't all been easy.

"We have an enormous backlash in South Australia. They won't buy our product because it's called Goondiwindi Cotton and we're perceived to be taking all their water."

Sam says there has always been negativity surrounding the cotton industry.

"Back in the 1980s it was chemical and cancer scares. Now it's the water debate. I think because the cotton industry has been relatively successful it's been a victim of the tall poppy syndrome."

The Coultons are trying to turn the tide of public opinion one bus load at a time. Three days a week they take tourists to Alcheringa.

"We take the bus to our 1500 mega litre dam which is equivalent to 1500 swimming pools. It's basically been empty for five years. The visitors will walk up on the edge of the dam and exclaim, 'You haven't got the water, have you'."

"When the first bloke said it about two years ago, I nearly bloody died. I mean there's 1.2 million mega litres on average that runs past Goondiwindi to the man-made Menindee Lakes, which evaporates on an average of 500,000 mega litres a year, and they stand on the edge of my little dam and go 'You haven't got the water, have you'."

Sam says cotton is a very efficient user of water for food and fibre production. It takes 1000 litres of water to grow a Goondiwindi Cotton shirt, 1500 to grow a hamburger and 10,000 litres to grow a computer or television set.

His point is that the basics of food and clothing can be produced economically. It's the luxury items that increase the cost on the landscape.

Warming up to his topic he exclaims: "We've got a bloody lot of education to do and it will take more than one generation to do it". With four daughters and four grandsons, Sam laughs that at least he has the ready-made team to carry on building a quality reputation for Goondiwindi Cotton's product.





Article provided by Queensland Country Life