Fremantle
· South Terrace · signs · Fremantle ·
I noticed the old AWTA sign today. I used to work there as a lab process worker, with brown uniform and no clue about anything. I've still got a few 'staples' of wool.
The shifts started at 6AM I think, and we were on a different part of the operation every week or so: separating out individual staples from one of three (I think?) sample canisters from each batch of wool and laying them carefully in plastic trays from where they'd be strength-tested; sticking bits of wool into metal tubes for them to be soaked in alcohol to dissolve the lanolin; weighing the resultant grease; squirting the wet wool out of those afterwards into a centrifuge to remove the alcohol; and using a big vacuum to move the wool into a press.