CSIRO has had outstanding success in breeding high yielding, high quality cotton with 80 – 90 per cent of the Australian cotton crop consisting of CSIRO developed varieties.
Our textiles research is being used not only for clothes, but for filters, antiballistics, gaskets, insulation, upholstery, carpets, bedding, bandages and wound dressings.
A textile technologist with CSIRO Materials Science & Engineering, Rene van der Sluijs, has won the Australian Cotton Growers’ Research Association (ACGRA) Researcher of the Year 2008 award.
In support of a developing bioeconomy in Australia, CSIRO Entomology is conducting research on industrial biotechnology and biomaterials; environmental biotechnology and enzymology; and sensory biology.
To combat falling international prices and competition from synthetic fibres, the Australian cotton industry relies on CSIRO research for continuing quality improvement.
Our researchers are using their skills to explore the relationships between irrigation systems and surrounding catchments, including the links between supply, allocation, productivity and ground water, and identify opportunities for integrated use of surface and groundwater.
A video showing CSIRO's new circular knitting machine for constructing miniature hollow tubes. This new resource will enable our biomedical research team to experiment with tissue engineering from textile structures. (0:30)
Australia’s farmers are our climate change 'warriors', and many of them are already meeting the challenges of climate change, with major modifications to the way they produce our food. In this podcast, Dr Mark Howden from CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship, explains how farmers are dealing with challenges such as lower rainfall and irrigation allocations. (4.51)
Dr Geoff Naylor helped develop prickle-free wool jumpers and warm wool doonas. Now his research group explores the physical properties of fibres and fibrous materials and the most efficient means of processing them.
Program and registration details for the Cotton Field to Fabric training course being run 25 - 27 November 2008 at the CSIRO facilities at Belmont, Geelong, Victoria, Australia. (3 pages)
