Corriedale wool tells a good yarn

A lifelong dedication by Tony Manchester to breeding Corriedales culminated in July in the launch of the knitting yarns at a special event held at Bendigo Woollen Mills in front of a packed gallery of yarn enthusiasts, industry leaders, media podcasters and wool lovers. 

His passion for growing high quality Corriedale wool was evident at the launch with Tony saying that the event was one of the most emotional evenings of his life and something he will remember forever. 

Bendigo Woollen Mills Marketing Manager, Kimberly Palmer, said the event was a great success, especially with the audience able to meet Tony face to face and discuss the product, where it came from, and how it was produced. 

“Having a product like this in our range has made the yarners very excited to get their hands on it as soon as they can,” she said. “The yarn is really lovely and soft, and this Corriedale wool is matching the softness of our premium Merino product range.” 

Quality wool products 

The project started two years ago when Bendigo Woollen Mills Managing Director, Colin Walker, asked the team at G. Schneider to find him a high quality, single-origin wool they could take to market and put a story behind. 

Tony had sold some wool through the traditional wool sales with the help of David Quirk of Jemalong Wool and it was snapped up at a premium, starting a wider conversation with G. Schneider about how good the quality of the wool was. 

After further discussions and help through David Quirk, they put together a 20 tonne shipping container of greasy Roseville blood Corriedale wool, from Tony and Galore-based commercial breeder Geoff Lane. The wool was sent off to China for processing before returning to Australia to be made into quality woollen blankets, and now knitting yarns, for the Australian market. 

Mr Walker says when he assessed the 23–25 micron Corriedale wool, with the softness, style and amount of wool in each fleece, he knew this was the product he had been searching for – and one that had a good provenance story behind it, with massive ‘farm to yarn’ appeal. 

“The use of the Roseville Corriedale wool in this context is really unique, as I strongly believe it easily outperforms Merino wool and gives us a unique opportunity to leverage the fact there is no other product like it on the market,” he said. 

“The style of each wool type is what you have to work with in our business and this wool is the best I have ever seen and I truly mean that. I knew instantly it would run really well and this was an exciting product for us to build a brand around.” 

Exciting future ahead 

Woolgrower Tony Manchester with one of the blankets and some of the yarn made by Bendigo Woollen Mills using wool from his Corriedale flock. PHOTOS: Bendigo Woollen Mills. 

Mr Walker sees a bright future with Roseville Corriedales and has ordered another container of the wool to expand the company’s offering into scarves and beanies. The wool will be sourced through Tony and clients that buy his rams. 

“This has opened up another market for my commercial producers to get on board and be part of the journey,” Tony said. “It is very exciting times here at Roseville and we are extremely excited to see where this journey takes us.” 

Mr Manchester has bred Corriedales for 60 years and has worked hard on getting meat and shape into his Corriedale flock. 

“We have worked hard on the meat side and created a lamb that hits the specs 75% of the time at top quality brands like Gundagai Lamb,” he said. 

“Off the back of getting my sheep right, we focused on the wool attributes and have drilled down hard on our coefficient variation and comfort factor attributes, which has tightened up the variation of our wool and we now produce a type of wool that is highly sought after and a sheep that has outstanding carcase qualities to go with it.” 

The 8-ply and 12-ply yarn, and two knitting patterns created for the yarn, plus the blankets, are available to buy on the Bendigo Woollen Mills website. 

More information: www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au  

This article appeared in the Spring 2025 edition of AWI’s Beyond the Bale magazine that was published in September 2025. Reproduction of the article is encouraged.